


Finders, Keepers

by ElvenSister



Series: The Tale of The Grinning Elf [2]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Descent DLC, Eventual Smut, F/M, Humor, Slightly AU (to add Fenris), Slow Build, Swearing, Tongue-in-cheek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-05-04 19:32:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5346002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElvenSister/pseuds/ElvenSister
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Would you miss a Dalish witch, who was crushed to death by a giant boulder? Fenris is stunned to find out that he actually would.</p><p>--<br/>This is an alternate ending to Waking up. If you have not read that, you should.</p><p>Contains spoilers for Descent DLC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Amazing Discoveries

”Fasta vas!”

Ellana stared at her cards in concentration, willing them to be something they were not. For some time, she had hoped that time and experience would turn her luck in cards, but she had been mistaken. People could teach her any card game known to man and she would suck at it. Venhedis!

“Inquisitor?”

“Sorry, is it my turn again?” Ellana asked and looked up.

Everyone was staring at her.

“What is it? Did my vallaslin come magically back or something?”

“Since when do you curse in Tevene?” Dorian asked.

“Why should I not?” Ellana asked, “It is a good tongue for cursing. And the ceaselessly visiting nobles give me less disapproving glances, when they do not know that I am cussing their useless asses.”

“How about, I don’t know, cussing them in your own language?” Sera asked, “No one understands that gibberish any more since droopy ears left.”

“I thought about it,” Ellana admitted, “But it does not feel right. Besides, I am very grateful that Fenris was kind enough to teach me some Tevene curses. I would hate to see his time wasted.”

Everyone turned to look at Fenris, who shrugged.

“You taught her?” Varric asked.

“Why not? Are we playing cards or not? I could use the witch’s money.”

“Don’t worry, Broody, we’ll get it before the night’s over,” Varric said.

“Before the game’s over, more like it,” Sera said.

“Hey,” Ellana exclaimed, “I will have you know that… I will not last two games with these cards. Fuck. Why do I always get the worst hands in the world?”

“Sounds like your hands need some practice,” Bull said and winked at her, “If you want, I can help you out. I am quite the master with my hands, even if I say so myself.”

There was some grunting and giggling around the table as a response.

“Thank you for the offer, Bull, but I think that Dorian would not look kindly upon such a lesson. I will need to seek someone else to practice with,” Ellana replied.

They continued to joke around as the night wore on. Ellana knew that she should have paid more attention to the game but she felt that it was of no use; she was going to lose anyhow. She shuffled her cards and let her mind wander.

The past six months had been full of activity, a bit to her surprise. She would have thought that things would fix themselves after the death of Corypheus but they had not. They had needed fixing, so the Inquisitor to the rescue! And her friends, of course. Almost all of her friends had remained in Skyhold with the exception of Solas, Vivienne, and Leliana. Solas had continued his mysterious journey to the Creators knew where. Vivienne had returned to court to play politics with the Empress. And Leliana had become the divine.

Divine Victoria had not been content to sit on her hands, oh no. She had redone everything. She had opened the clergy to all races. She had undone the circles and given the mages their freedom. She had made charity the most important issue for the whole Chantry. There had been factions, of course, but she had managed to talk them to return. It was truly amazing. Ellana was impressed. She was certain that she had made the right choice.

“Are you having a stroke, witch?”

Ellana looked at Fenris, who was scowling at her from under his fringe. He seemed to be in quite a hurry to get her money.

“Of course not, Fenris,” she replied and smiled at him sweetly, “I am conferring with a demon in order to bloodmagically swap my cards with yours.”

“That is not a joking matter, witch.”

“Then why are you smiling?” Ellana asked, grinning at the wiggling corner of his mouth.

“I am not smiling.”

“You are, too,” Sera said, giggling, “She can make even you smile, sourpuss.”

“I am neither sour nor smiling,” the warrior replied.

“Give it up, Broody. There’s no harm in smiling sometimes,” Varric said, “I wonder, is it an elf guy thing?”

“Is what an elf guy thing?” Dorian asked.

“Not smiling. Think about it,” Varric said, “The elven women I know smile all the time, but the men… Broody here, Chuckles, Frown…”

“I smile,” Fenris piped in.

“Sure you do – when people die,” Ellana said, “I think that it is a matter of personality, Varric. Loranil, for example, is a very happy person. Maybe the Inquisition simply attracts male elves of the grimmer persuasion. But I believe that, under the right circumstances, you can make any male elf just as happy as the next man. Even Fenris. Or Dario. I might even try it someday.”

Ellana thought of Dario de Ayala, the spymaster, who had taken over after Leliana had left. The former Antivan Crow had become highly recommended by the Nightingale, who had said that the elf was known to an old friend of hers. The man had proved to be a capable replacement to Leliana. Not to mention that he was gorgeous… As long as he did not open his mouth. It was not that he had a bad personality. He was friendly and ready to help. He was just such a bummer. He thought that everything was going to go wrong. That made him good at what he did, but talking to him had always felt to Ellana like she was trying to roll a rock uphill. One day, she would gag him and handcuff him and show him everything that was good in the world. That would teach him to smile. Either that, or blow his head off. His grimness was getting to the point where everyone would be fine with either result.

“You mean sex, right?” Sera asked after having thought of it for some time.

“Among other things,” Ellana confirmed. Maybe sex would make Dario smile, she thought.

“Are you sure?” Dorian asked and gestured towards Fenris, “I do not know about Dario, but this particular case of broodiness seems so severe that even sex might not cure it.”

“Stop talking about me as if I am not present,” Fenris barked, “Stop talking about me all together. We should be playing cards, not discussing my sex life.”

“You have a sex life?” Varric asked, “Do tell.”

“Or, better yet, share,” Bull commented and earned a friendly jab to his side from Dorian’s elbow.

Fenris buried his face in his hand.

“Can we just play, please?”

“Yes, let’s,” Sera said, “I want that money.”

They played a few more hands. Ellana ran out of coin during the second one and she had to bow out of the game. She fetched another pint and returned to watch, what happened to her money. Sera was not going to get it, of that much she was sure. It mostly tended to end up in Varric’s or Bull’s pocket.

“So, Boss,” Bull said, “The Deep Roads tomorrow, right? You think they have any dragons down there?”

“I hope not, Bull,” Ellana replied, “I think that the darkspawn are enough. I hate those things. They are slimy and they smell.”

“There is also the fact that their blood is poisonous,” Fenris volunteered.

“Wait, what?” Sera screamed.

“Of course it is, why would it not be?” Ellana said, “Because killing monsters with regular blood is so freaking easy. They needed an update.”

“And earthquakes,” Varric reminded her, “Don’t forget the earthquakes.”

“How could I?” Ellana said and shook her head, “I hate the idea of being underground. It is even more terrifying when you add the probability of tons of rocks falling on your head.”

“Then why are we going?” Dorian asked.

“Because the Inquisition needs the lyrium,” Ellana sighed, “We still have mages and templars, who use it. Not to mention crafting. If the Deep Roads are unapproachable, we will not get the lyrium.”

“And you have the need to help people,” Fenris added.

“That, too,” Ellana admitted, “I am really pissed at the Wardens, though. What the fuck are they doing? This is exactly the sort of shit they are supposed to deal with. I saved them instead of banishing their asses. So where are they, when there is a crisis that cries out for the Wardens? Not to be found. Venhedis, that is unbelievable.”

“Could you end your rant with a Common curse, please?” Varric asked, “It sounds wrong otherwise.”

“Bugger.”

“Thank you.”

\--

“Fenris, would you say that I have been in a life-threatening situation?” Ellana asked as her spirit sword hit Fenris’ broadsword.

“What are you going on about, witch?” Fenris asked.

It was following morning and they were soon going to leave for the Storm Coast. During the past months, Ellana and Fenris had fallen into the habit of sparring together in the morning. It had arisen out of necessity. They had been working together a lot since Cassandra had dedicated her attention towards rebuilding the Seekers of Truth. Both Fenris and Ellana tended to rush into the melee, which had often resulted in Fenris having to watch out not to cut Ellana with his swings. There had been an incident with cut hair. It had made the warrior finally insist on the training, even though Ellana had said that she did not mind getting a few little cuts every now and then. Fenris had been persistent and Ellana had agreed in the end.

The first couple of weeks had not been productive. They had been too careful of each other to really get anywhere. It had required an amazing amount of frustration for Fenris to suggest that he use his markings and she use her magic. They had tried and it had made all the difference. The passage of time had made it irrelevant whether they needed the sparring or not. They had become to enjoy it and the conversations it included.

Fenris had, naturally, been furious by the freedom divine Victoria had given to the mages. They had spent many a sparring session discussing the issue. The dialogue had ricocheted into other subjects, as well. They had covered the Chantry, the Inquisition, magic, elves, the Dalish, the Qun, Tevinter, and Orlais. By time, they had gone into each other’s histories. Ellana had felt deeply honored the morning Fenris had told her of his life in slavery. She would never have thought that he would come to trust her that much. She would not have guessed that she would one day think of him as her friend, but she did.

“Humor me, please,” she asked.

“All right,” he said and attacked, “I have seen you in a life-threatening situation.”

“Why have I not turned to blood magic, then?”

Fenris shot a confused look at her from behind their clanging blades.

“You have stated that any mage, given enough incentive, will turn to blood magic,” Ellana continued, “I was trying to save the world. I have been fighting for the lives of others and that of my own for a long time. Why have I not turned to blood magic to crush my enemies?”

Fenris was silent for a while, which was not uncommon. Ellana trusted that he would answer when he was ready.

“You are strong,” he said eventually, “Not every mage is strong. Most are not.”

“How do you know this?”

“By the power of observation,” he replied, “Before you argue, think about it – how many people helped, when the world was coming to an end? How many people did something instead of hiding away and pretending that nothing was happening? Those people, who hid away, are weak. They should not have the power a mage is cursed with.”

“But I should?”

“No one should. Just like I should not have these markings, but I do.”

“Why do we have those things, then?” Ellana asked.

“I say ‘Maker’, you say ‘Creators’,” Fenris said, “Why does anything happen? Nothing makes sense.”

“You sound like Cole,” Ellana replied, “He makes people see the world in stories, even though he does not believe it to be like that. He says that it helps them. Well, us.”

“I can understand the fascination with stories,” Fenris said, “There is a reason, why Varric’s books sell so well.”

“Yes, sex,” Ellana huffed, “But I know, what you mean.”

Ellana stepped back and let her spirit sword fade away.

“Thank you for the spar, Fenris,” she said, “I have to go leave Fen’Harel with Loranil for this trip.”

“You are not taking your wolf into the Deep Roads?”

“No,” she replied with a frown, “To fight, he needs to bite. But if he bites, he could get poisoned by darkspawn blood. I do not want that, though I will miss him.”

“A wise choice,” Fenris admitted.

“Not a statement I would have expected to hear from you regarding myself. I think I miss the times you used to call me a fool.”

“You are a fool.”

“I was wrong.”

\--

When they reached the Storm Coast, there was a huge lift waiting for them.

“Now, that’s a lift!” Varric stated.

“We won’t fit in all at once, Boss,” Bull pointed out, “How do you want to do this?”

“Varric and Fenris have the most experience with fighting darkspawn, and Blackwall is a sort of a Warden,” Ellana said, “The four of us will go first and set up a camp. When that is done, the rest of you can follow so that no one will miss the underground party.”

The others nodded in agreement. Ellana and the men took the lift down.

“This reminds me of a story,” Varric said.

“Remarkable,” Blackwall stated dryly.

“I have a friend, who was once crowned the king of the nugs,” Varric continued.

“What?” Ellana asked, “You mean to say that Augustine is not the king of the nugs? But he is magnificent!”

“Sorry, Inquisitor.”

“I always wondered if I would die here,” Blackwall said.

“You are not dead yet,” Ellana pointed out.

“The day is just beginning,” the warrior replied.

“And we are accompanied by a Dalish witch, who is followed around by the strangest trouble the world has ever seen,” Fenris said, “Anything could happen.”

“Come on, guys, I am not that bad,” Ellana said, “I am sure that everything will be alright.”

The lift stopped and they stepped off. Ellana looked around the caves. There was a lot of room and some light and even a waterfall, but she did not feel right. She needed open air and the sky above her, not a butt-load of rock.

They met a young dwarf, who turned out to be Shaper Valta. She welcomed them and discussed the situation, all the while trying to stay out of the light. When Ellana asked her about that, she said that even a sight at the sky could take away her position and render her casteless.

“Gotta love ‘real’ dwarves,” Varric commented.

The Shaper told them how bad the situation was. There had been too many casualties. The seal that used to keep the darkspawn in had been broken by the quakes and the Legion of the Dead had not been able to repair it. Ellana listened to her in concentration and asked questions. The Legion of the Dead sounded like Crestwood until the Shaper explained that they were actually dwarves, who had dedicated their lives to killing darkspawn. It seemed to Ellana that killing darkspawn attracted a lot of people, who liked drama, what with the Wardens and the Legion, who attended their own funerals…

All of a sudden, there was an earthquake that shook the entire cave. The rumbling was still going on, when Ellana was forcefully pushed away and into the ground. When the movement stopped, she opened her eyes to look into a pair of green ones. For a moment, Ellana could only stare at the beautiful eyes of Fenris in wonder. She enjoyed his weight on her.

“Are you all right?”

The magic was broken and the pair looked away from each other. Ellana saw that a giant boulder was now where she had been but a moment earlier. Fenris had saved her life.

“I am fine, thanks to this genuine knight in shining armor,” Ellana said, when they got up, “Thank you, Fenris, you saved my life.”

“It was nothing,” he mumbled. Was he blushing?

“These quakes really are something,” Valta said, “You should watch yourself, Inquisitor.”

“She’s not very good at that,” Varric said.

“That is why I have friends,” Ellana said, “They have my back.”

“Remember the time she walked into a giant?” Blackwall asked, “Let’s not do that again.”

“It happened once,” Ellana defended herself, “And I was really tired.”

“All sex and no sleep makes the Inquisitor a dead woman,” Varric jabbed.

“The title of your next book, I assume?” Fenris said. He sounded a little sour for some reason.

“Fine, fine, have your fun,” Ellana said, “It is not likely to happen again, so you had better take all that you can out of it.”

Ellana walked ahead of the group. There was something dark closing in on them fast. The blob ran towards them and grew bigger and bigger. Before Ellana realized, what was happening, a huge ogre slammed into her.

“Guys, I found an ogre!”

“Inquisitor, we just covered this,” Varric yelled at her and began shooting, “Do you want us to make fun of you?”

“In a minute, maybe,” she replied, “Right now, I would prefer it if you killed this thing.”

Ellana had trouble fighting the thing in close quarters. It kept trying to grab her. She thought that it would be easier to fight if she could flank the creature. So, she fadestepped. Right down the cliff and into the gorge.

“Witch!”

“Inquisitor!”

Ellana could hear the panicked cries of her friends but she had to concentrate. She hit a rock and a root painfully on her way down before she was able to turn into an owl. She flew back up and resumed her elven form. She flanked the ogre and cast.

“Do we need to put a leash on you?” Fenris asked with a furious voice.

“Really? I would never have pegged you to be into that stuff,” Ellana said, “I always thought that to be more of a Bull sort of a thing.”

“What?”

Varric was laughing somewhere in the background, until the ogre grabbed Ellana in one of its fists.

“Let go of me, you dirty bastard,” Ellana screamed, “I do not even want to know, where this hand has been, it is filthy!”

“Hold on, witch, I will get you down,” Fenris said and slammed the ogre hard on the back of its knee.

“I can just fadestep out of this hand--” Ellana began.

“You will not!” Fenris cut her off and hit the creature with renewed vigor, “You will not fall down again. Did you learn nothing?”

The ogre let go of Ellana and she stepped farther away from it before she resumed casting. It took them forever to take the thing down, but they managed it eventually. They all needed a breather after that.

“I hate darkspawn,” Ellana announced.

“They like you, though,” Blackwall said, “That may help us find more of them – the Inquisitor way.”

“Thank you, Blackwall, I feel much better about falling down the cliff.”

“What were you thinking, fadestepping in such a small space?” Fenris asked sternly, “You should know better than that.”

“I thought: ‘Gee, I would die to see some giant, darkspawn ass right now’.”

“This is not the time, witch,” he said with the warning clear in his tone.

“I am sorry,” Ellana said, “I was trying to flank it, but I skipped the calculation. I promise to be more careful in the future.”

Fenris nodded, though he still seemed unsettled. They continued their way to the Legion camp. Before they could claim it, they had to help the Legion kill a lot of darkspawn that were trying to keep the Legion from blowing up their route to the surface. Ellana was grateful that the ugly bastards went down faster than the big hulking ogre they had killed earlier.

When the darkspawn were dead and the tunnel had been collapsed, Valta introduced them to Commander Renn, who was in charge of the Legion soldiers. He showed them an area they could use as a camp for the Inquisition. They sent a runner to the surface to get the rest of their people and their stuff there.

\--

It was night but Fenris could not sleep. They had set their bedrolls next to the fire since there were only a few tents. There was snoring and sniffling going on all around him. Usually he had no trouble falling asleep, but this night his thoughts kept him awake.

The witch had almost died that day. Twice. He had saved her one of those times. He remembered the situation clearly. He remembered when she had looked right into his eyes with her big, beautiful ones. At that moment, he had realized that he did not want her to die. He would miss her too much. At some point, in some way, she had become a part of his life. A part he did not want to lose. That feeling had grown even stronger when he had watched her fall over the cliff, into the abyss. The pain at that moment… He preferred not to think about it.

Fenris replayed the scene with the boulder in his head. She had looked so surprised and stumped, speechless for once in her life. She had just stared into him, into his soul, with those big eyes. He had liked saving her life. He had liked protecting her. He had liked the feeling of her small body under his. He liked it so much that he was growing aroused at the thought of having her under him and… What was happening to him?

Fenris chided himself. That was a stupid question. He knew, what was happening to him. Fasta vas, if it had not already happened some time ago, without him even realizing it. How could he entertain such thoughts about a witch? A Dalish witch, to top it off.

They had spent a lot of time together. She knew more about him than almost anyone alive. He had, for some reason, felt comfortable telling her things of himself and his life. And she had told of hers in return. Somewhere down the line, his attitude had changed. She was still a witch but – more than that – she was his witch.


	2. Touching

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a little carried away with this one. It's just that I can't remember the last time I had an actual day of doing nothing. All hail days off!

”Another day dawns at the surface, where there are such things as days and dawns, while we are here, under the freaking ground, to kill poisonous monsters. Come, all and one, join the Inquisition – it is fun, fun, fun!”

“I can see, why they do not let you give many speeches to the recruits,” Fenris commented, “If they had, the power of the Inquisition would never have grown with the rate it did.”

“People have different skills,” the witch replied with a grin, “Cullen can motivate the recruits, Josephine can make the nobles dance circles around her, and I can--“

“Make dirty jokes?” Fenris suggested.

“Walk into monsters?” Blackwall said.

“Fall off cliffs?” Varric supplied.

“Star in porn?” the elven rogue added.

“Exactly,” the unfazed witch said, “As you can see, my day is full without having to drill motivational speaking. Since I have so much to do, I suggest we get a move on. Who wants to go kill some more darkspawn?”

“I’ll go, Boss,” the Qunari said, “I need the exercise.”

The witch looked around the group and her eyes paused on Fenris. He felt his heartrate rise. He remembered when those eyes had been much closer to his, when that body had been pressed under his…

“You look tired, Fenris. Did you not sleep well? Maybe you should sit this one out and rest a little.”

Fenris shook his head. He was not getting left behind.

“I am fine,” he replied, more forcefully than he had planned, “Besides, who will hold your leash, if I am not present to pull you out of harm’s way?”

“What is this I hear about a leash? I can most definitely help with that, Boss,” the Qunari said with a dirty smile, “Just hand me the leash and I’ll take it from there. Are handcuffs included?”

Fenris clenched his fists. He told himself to calm down; this was how they always talked. There was no reason for him to get upset.

“Maybe you should try that with your own mage, Qunari,” he said.

“Who says that I haven’t?”

“The witch needs a leash to stay out of trouble, not for some perverted purpose.”

“Who says you can’t do both? It’s much more fun.”

“All right, people,” the witch said with an exasperated tone, “When we get home, you are getting a lecture on healthy relationships.”

“From you?” Varric asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Why not?”

“Chuckles.”

“Solas and I had a very healthy relationship,” she replied, “Up until the point he dumped me out of the blue. And vanished. And slaughtered about thirty people by himself just to say that he loved me…”

Varric gave her a meaningful look.

“Fine,” she caved, “Cassandra will give the lecture. And I will attend, as well.”

“Can I skip it if I go with you now? I don’t wanna listen to her yammer about her happiness with Goldilocks,” the elven rogue said.

“We can negotiate,” the witch replied, “So, today’s party is Bull, Sera, and Fenris, who, for some reason, is eager to go and kill darkspawn?”

Fenris nodded.

“Well, who am I to deny you your broody fun? Let’s go.”

\--

While they descended, Ellana listened to the dwarves tell about Titans, the Stone, and the Deep Roads. She had not met many traditional dwarves for obvious reasons. She loved the sun and the air and the sky, while traditional dwarves stayed below the ground. Their perspective was very different from hers.

Shaper Valta was incredibly fascinated with the idea of Titans. She thought that they were the reason for the earthquakes, which seemed to her to have a rhythm akin to breathing. Her face shone when she told that the dwarves called themselves children of the Stone. The idea of a creature, who could alter Stone by their singing and breathing… Valta never said it but, to Ellana, she sounded like she was talking of her gods. Ellana shook her head sadly behind the enthused dwarf’s back. She had met one of her gods and it had been a disappointment. She wished that things would work out better for the Shaper. Maybe her god would not be a bitter old woman with a “shit happens but vengeance will be mine” attitude.

“Why do you have castes?” Ellana asked.

“Why should we not? We have always had them,” the Shaper replied, “We can’t picture Orzammar without them.”

“But they are stupid and unfair!” Sera said, “I bet the nobles keep them going. Wouldn’t want to lose their money and power, right?”

“There are many, who think that way,” Valta answered, “They mostly leave.”

“So, it’s ‘eat it or beat it’?” Sera asked.

“Most dwarves are happy with their place,” Renn said.

“There’s a comfort in knowing your place,” Bull said.

“Exactly.”

“I doubt the casteless would agree,” Fenris huffed, “I am not surprised that you understand, Qunari. The Qun is practically the same as the caste system.”

“Under the Qun, birth doesn’t matter. Everyone’s assigned the place most suited to them,” Bull replied.

“Out of curiosity,” Ellana said, “Have the Qunari ever sat down with the dwarves to discuss co-operation? Because that would make sense. If those two groups got together, they could rule the world. And their ideologies are not that different.”

“I haven’t heard of such talks,” Valta said, “And I can’t see them happening. Orzammar likes its independence.”

“Or its illusion of independence,” Fenris said aloud, what Ellana had been thinking.

“What are you suggesting?” Renn asked.

“Was it not an outsider, who chose your king?”

“That was during the Blight,” Valta said, “It was different. Everyone had to do something about the Blight, or it would have swallowed the whole world.”

“What did you do about Corypetus?” Sera asked, “I didn’t see many dwarves, when he was trying to rule the world.”

“There were talks about sending troops to the surface…”

“Oh, goody, that makes me feel so much better,” Sera said and rolled her eyes.

“You trade with the surface all the time,” Fenris continued, “How can you honestly think that you could survive on your own?”

“And now this,” Sera said, “The first trouble you have and who do you call? Us.”

“That is, what everyone else has done,” Ellana pointed out.

“We’ll help, all right,” Sera said, “But they can’t go on pretending that they don’t need others.”

“I agree with the rogue” Fenris said.

“There you go again,” Sera grumbled, “You’ve been with us for months – is it too difficult for your tiny brain to remember our names?”

“Says the woman, who never learned to say ‘Corypheus’.”

“I can say it, I just don’t want to.”

“My point exactly.”

“Inquisitor, I have heard that you killed a dragon,” Renn asked to change the subject, “Is it true?”

Ellana smiled gratefully at the Commander.

“A dragon?” Bull asked, “Try six. Or is it seven? I’ve lost track. The last one she killed by herself.”

“The one before the last,” Fenris corrected him, “The last one was the false Archdemon.”

Renn seemed impressed and looked like he had to shift through the information for a while before asking more.

“You’ve killed an Archdemon?”

“Not a real one,” Ellana said, “Corypheus had a false one as a pet because, evidently, you cannot be an evil overlord and not have a pet dragon. It is in the handbook with all the cliché dialogue. We had to kill the dragon before we were able to kill its master.”

“Our troubles look small compared to the ones you’ve had to face,” Renn replied, “The one good thing about darkspawn is that we don’t have to listen to the trash talk. They only scream.”

“Yes, the truly difficult part in killing a god wannabe is to listen to all the monologuing,” Ellana said dryly and earned a small laugh from the Commander.

The Deep Roads were full of doors that were missing gears. The gears were lying around in the strangest places, just like the freaking shards. Ellana had no idea, why all the ancient peoples had been so obsessed with locking their doors this way. Would it not have been easier to have a regular key and be done with it? She was sure that they could have come up with more productive uses for their time than scattering the pieces around – some in unsavory places.

“You are not thinking of going there, are you?” Fenris asked, as Ellana eyed a piece that was a few feet away, on the end of a narrow ledge next to a deep gorge.

“Of course I am,” she replied, “It will take me but a moment.”

“We have enough of those stupid pieces,” he tried to appeal to her, “There is no need to risk your life.”

“I am touched that you care, Fenris,” Ellana said and offered him a warm smile, which made him shift and look away, “But I can do this.”

“She’s walked over narrower beams,” Sera said, “Remember that beam in the castle full of crazy people?”

“That was narrower and longer than this one,” Ellana said, “And I did not fall. Just rocked a little and almost lost my balance once. Piece of cake.”

“Don’t speak about cake,” Sera said, “I want some but there’s none in this shitty hole.”

“In order for us to get out of here and get you some cake, I need to get that gear.”

Ellana jumped over the small wall and was about to step onto the ledge, when someone grabbed her hand. She looked up to see Fenris holding it tightly. That was strange. She knew that he had a thing about touching. In fact, she did not remember ever touching him outside of battle or sparring.

“At least let me hold on to you, while you endanger your life, witch,” he said and added, “Please.”

“Fine,” she conceded and stretched to take the gear while holding his hand.

Fenris did not let go of Ellana’s hand before she was back on solid ground. She had no idea, what had come over him, but she liked it. He still called her witch, but it lacked the metallic clang of hatred that had been there in the beginning. Maybe he was starting to think of her as a friend.

The Deep Roads were a massive system of caves. The voices of the small group echoed in the deep, empty spaces. Sometimes it felt like they were all alone in there, but that was usually the time they got attacked by darkspawn, spiders, corpses, or demons of some sort. A variety of enemies lurked behind every closed door.

“For once, just once,” Ellana said, “I would like to open a door and not find something that is trying to kill me. Is it like this everywhere?”

“What do you mean?” Sera asked.

“Aravels do not really have doors,” Ellana replied, “So I had not opened many doors before I was commandeered into the Inquisition. And ever since, there seems to be some danger lurking behind any door I open. Is it like this everywhere? Or is it just my luck?”

“Kirkwall was like this,” Fenris supplied with a small smile playing on his lips.

“Val Royaux, too,” Sera said and thought for some time before adding, “And Denerim.”

“I think it is settled: you should never open a door, if you are not ready to fight for your life,” Ellana said.

Despite all the trouble behind doors and the feeling of unease that Ellana had for being under the ground, she had to admit that the Deep Roads were impressive. The dwarves had told her that their ancestors used to have roads that connected all around Thedas. They could walk underground anywhere they chose and they never got lost because of the stone sense every dwarf possessed. It must have been magnificent. One more thing that had been lost, Ellana sighed and thought of Eluvians and the Crossroads Morrigan had shown her. What had gone wrong? Why had so many marvelous things been lost to the passing of time?

They opened yet another door to find trouble behind it. This time it was in the form of dozens of shrieks in a wide, flaming space.

“Incoming!”

“I hate these screaming thingies, they give me the creeps,” Sera said and vanished with a cloud of smoke.

“Interesting,” Ellana said and cast a barrier for the whole group, “Are there some sorts of darkspawn you do not hate?”

“Nope,” Sera replied from somewhere behind Ellana’s back, “I hate all of them fuckers and want them dead.”

“You have come to the right place, miss,” Renn commented.

Once the shrieks were dead, there were other sorts. Ellana did not remember, what all of them were called, but it did not matter. You could kill something without knowing its name. It was not like they came with tags saying, “Hello, my name is Graugh, I am a genlock and I want to kill you”. That would have been convenient, though. A flashing health bar would also have been nice to indicate, when a particular enemy would stop hitting her.

The fight was fierce. There were waves and waves of the fuckers. They were not even done with the previous one before new creatures appeared out of some cave or other. Usually they jumped the warriors straight away, which showed some good taste on their part. 

“We could use some barriers here, Boss!”

Ellana cast them one hastily.

“Sorry, Bull, I was preoccupied,” she replied, “I just realized that I have something in common with the darkspawn and the realization threw me.” 

“What would that be?” Fenris asked.

“They take a look at the group and jump the warriors. That is what I would do, though in an entirely different context.”

The space echoed with Bull’s booming laugh.

“Damn it, witch, do you say everything that pops into your head?” Fenris yelled, though Ellana could see that he was blushing.

“You asked!”

“Are you blaming me?”

“For looking good enough to jump on? Kind of, yes.”

“Are you always like this?” Renn asked.

“The Legion does not have small talk during battle?” Ellana asked, “That is strange.”

“Trash talk is half the fun,” Sera said, “The other half is arrows. Lots of them.”

“That’s nice,” Valta said, “Why don’t you use them? There’s a slew of new targets closing in.”

The battle felt like it went on forever. They moved further on little by little, killing their enemies and consuming their potions. They were done with two huge ogres and their endless amounts of sidekicks when a powerful emissary appeared out of nowhere. They started hacking away at it but it just would not quit.

“That’s one tough son of a bitch,” Bull yelled, battering at the thing.

“Why won’t it die already?” Sera asked, puffing.

“Corypheus was easier to kill than this creature,” Fenris said after gulping down a health potion.

“People, we are running out of potions,” Ellana said, “Be more careful. Look after each other and let me take the brunt of the attack, my barrier can take it.”

“So your plan is for us to stand back and watch you get yourself killed?” Fenris asked with a growl in his voice, “That is not going to happen.”

“I need you to listen to me, Fenris,” Ellana said, “I am saying that my magic can take it, your body cannot. Let me use the thing you call a curse and turn it on the darkspawn. Trust me.”

Ellana taunted the enemies to draw the bulk of the horde at herself. The others let her do it and took to flanking their opposition and watching out for each other. It worked for some time and they managed the kill most of the enemies, but the emissary kept going. Ellana focused on beating it with all her might. She took her spirit sword and slashed away.

“Behind you!”

Ellana turned in time to see a sword come at her and Fenris appear to take the hit that was intended for her. He grunted and his face showed that it had been a powerful one, but he turned to face the attacker despite the wound.

“Fenris!”

“Kill the emissary, witch, I will live,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Someone help him! And get him a health potion, while you are at it.”

“We are out of potions,” Bull yelled.

“Fasta vas! Then we should better kill these fuckers before they kill us,” Ellana screamed, “Put your backs into it! No more screwing around, they have to die!”

There were fierce battle cries all around. A sort of manic desperation took hold of them and they fought like never before, painfully aware of the situation and the very real danger of dying.

At last, the emissary went down and they were able to kill the last of its henchmen.

“Is everyone all right?” Ellana asked.

There was some grumbling. Ellana looked at her companions. Most of them looked fine enough, except for Fenris. He was swaying and holding his injured arm. Ellana rushed to his side and made it just in time to catch him before he fell. She took a firm hold of him and let him gently to the ground to take a closer look at his injuries. She had to remove some of his armor to succeed. He was burning with fever and had several cuts and bruises all over his body. The deep wound in his right hand was the worst and it was bleeding way too much. Ellana put her hand on the wound and applied pressure on it.

“Fenris, you have a fever,” she said, “Did you ingest darkspawn blood?”

“No,” he said faintly, “It is because of the wound.”

Ellana looked to Renn for confirmation, for she assumed that he would know about the effects of ingesting darkspawn blood.

“It’s true,” the Commander confirmed, “If it was the corruption, he’d already be turning grey.”

Ellana was relieved to hear that.

“He still needs healing and my mana is depleted,” she said, “Someone needs to go to the camp and fetch some potion. Bull, could you do it, please?”

“Of course, Boss,” he said and left.

“The three of us will keep guard,” Renn said, “You do what you can for the man.”

Ellana nodded. She needed to do something, fast, or she could lose him. Fenris was shifting in and out of consciousness and Ellana had no mana to heal him with. In a world of healing magic, you had very seldom any need for other kind of healing, but she knew some, at least. The keeper had made sure that she would not be useless in a situation like this.

Ellana ripped a slice of her robes and put it aside. She dug out some elfroot from the pouch on her belt. She put the elfroot against the wound and bandaged it with the cloth so that it was tight enough and covered the entire wound. She drew the last of her mana to form some ice around the bandage but was careful not to let it touch his naked skin. When the bandage was done, she carefully shifted Fenris so that he was leaning on her chest, which abled her to prop his hand on her shoulder with the wound remaining above the level of his heart. He seemed comfortable enough. Ellana had nothing left to do but wait and worry.

Ellana looked at the unconscious warrior in her arms. His expression was restless and his hair was sticking to his forehead. She ran her hand through it and caressed his cheek to soothe his dreams, whatever they were. She did not like feeling so helpless. She prayed for some time but it did not take the worry away. Praying had not given her as much comfort as it used to, not since she had met Morrigan’s mother.

Ellana thought, what she would like someone to do if she was Fenris right now. At first, nothing came to mind. She had rarely been sick and this was the first time in her life that she had people, who would actually care if she was sick. People, who would do something about it. What would she like them to do, if this happened to her? Then it hit her. She began to sing.

\--

Fenris was in the darkness, where everything, every breath, felt heavy. He was not aware of much but the heaviness. There was pain but that was not out of the ordinary. He was used to pain. Pain was an old friend. It told him that he was alive. It told him that he was not done yet.

Should he be happy that he was still alive? Should he not want to go to the Maker’s side and reunite with Hawke? He knew the answer to that. He should definitely not want to go. Hawke would kick his ass for dying this young. She would have wanted him to have a full life. He knew that he had been making her very sad during the first months after her death. Had she been able to, she would have haunted him until he dropped the bottle and went out to see the sun. To meet his friends, the people, who cared about him. But no, he had been selfish and wallowed in his own misery with his good friend, wine.

Then there had been his ingenious idea of killing the Inquisitor. That would have made Hawke furious. By all accounts, she had liked and respected the witch. She had died to protect her so that she could protect the rest of the world. Her sacrifice would have been for nothing if Fenris had killed the witch, as he had planned to do. He owed it to the witch’s persuasive powers that he had not ruined everything Hawke had tried to guard.

Six months ago, it had pained him to admit that he saw, why she was the Inquisitor. But, even then, he had seen it. She was a powerful mage, though it was not all. Not even the most of it. She was a genuinely good person, who cared about people, even ones trying to kill her. She was good at making everyone feel better. She listened to people’s troubles and let them be sad, but also knew the right point for turning that sadness into laughter. She had enough inner strength to carry the Thedas on her shoulders and not ask for help. Her public speaking was admittedly awful but that did not matter. People followed her because of who she was and what she did, not because of how ornately she spoke.

Thinking about the witch made Fenris happy. That was a strange discovery, though not an unpleasant one. He had come to think of her as a friend, for he did not have another name for someone, who knew so much about him and for whom he would take a blade. He had really taken a blade for her. That may not have been the smartest thing he had ever done, but he had wanted to protect her. That good person. That warm smile. Those big eyes that could see straight into his soul. The curves of her body that could make his blood pool in his groin.

Even now, he could hear her voice. It was singing, which Fenris found to be odd. He had no recollection of ever hearing her sing. Why would his groggy brain imagine such a thing? He listened to the voice and could not recognize the words. Why would he picture her singing gibberish? It made no sense. She must really be singing, Fenris decided.

Fenris came slowly to his senses. He moved his members minimally to find out, where the pain was. His hand was in a strange position over the witch’s shoulder. The wound on his hand was throbbing, but, other than that, the damage did not seem too bad. He would live.

Fenris listened to the singing some more. He did not know the language but assumed that it was Elven. It was a good language for singing and her voice had a pleasant color to it. It was a shame that she did not sing more often.

After some time, Fenris realized that his face was pressed into the witch’s breasts. Because she wore robes, not armor, he could feel their shape and warmth through the cloth. It was more than pleasant. Out of impulse, he rubbed his cheek on them.

“I take it that you are still alive,” she said, “It is my turn to say that you are an idiot, lethallin.”

“Why is that?”

“You went and got yourself stabbed, even though I expressly told you not to.”

“I was not stabbed, witch. I was cut with a sword. Stabbing is something you do with a knife,” he replied.

“My apologies, mister dictionary.”

“And you did not tell me not to get stabbed.”

“You are not much of a warrior if you need to be told not to get stabbed,” she pointed out, “You seem to be taking every benefit of the situation. You do know that my nipple is almost in your mouth?”

“You can move any time you choose,” he replied.

“I know,” she said, “I am just making it clear that if I start moaning, you have only yourself to blame.”

“And that is how it should be.”

Fenris was enjoying the situation. Even more so, when she tightened her hold of him, drew him nearer to her body, and leaned her head on his. It felt good and right to have her there, holding him. Fenris put his free hand on her left one and marveled how small it was compared to his. He caressed her fingers lazily and waited for the fog in his head to clear.

“Could you sing some more?”

“Would you like that?”

“Yes, very much.”

“Ma nuvenin, lethallin,” she replied and began another song.

\--

New sounds woke Fenris up. There was a runner, who had brought potions from the camp. He was handed one of them and he downed the familiar liquid in one go. It worked its magic fast, as it always did, and he was on his feet in no time. The wound disappeared and the heaviness left him, though he was still tired and needed sleep.

There were others arriving. They brought camping equipment and food. Fenris ate silently and prepared his bedroll. Sleep was already pressing on him, but there was one more thing he needed to do. He sought out the witch, who was recounting the events of the day and night to her friends.

Fenris tapped her on the shoulder.

“A moment of your time, if you would,” he said.

She gave him a confused look, but followed after him. When they were out of earshot, Fenris stopped to look at the witch. She seemed as tired as he felt.

“Thank you,” he said from the bottom of his heart.

Then he did the unthinkable and pulled her into a tight hug. She made a surprised noise but returned the hug.

“You are welcome, lethallin,” she said after some time.

They stepped apart and looked at each other.

“Pardon me for… Groping you,” Fenris said awkwardly, “I… I should not have done it.”

She raised an eyebrow at him.

“I thought you got it, but as it seems that you did not, I will reiterate: I liked it. You are welcome to do it again, as long as you will not get yourself almost killed while trying to cup a feel. That is unnecessary.”

Fenris chuckled.

“I will keep that in mind. And I will definitely try again, once I get some sleep. Good night, witch.”

“Good night, idiot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ma nuvenin = as you wish (Dragon Age wiki)
> 
> I dislike worst aid in fiction (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WorstAid), so I tried to avoid that. Admittedly, it has been a couple of years since my last first aid lesson and I cannot say that it is my everyday life to treat sword wounds, so ask a doctor if you have one.
> 
> By the way, I think that fight against the waves of darkspawn and that bloody emissary was disproportionately difficult compared to the one with Corypheus. I was playing casual just to get to the story and I really had to work at it. Damn you, Bioware, for making me improve my skills!
> 
> It's nice to see that some people have already found this. Thanks for reading! There is more to come.


	3. How to Avoid Getting Bored

The camp was still quiet when Ellana woke up. She sat up and stretched before taking a look around the gloomy cave. Except for the ones keeping watch, everyone seemed to be asleep. Ellana missed Fen’Harel and Cassandra, who were early risers like herself. 

Ellana got up and walked a little to awake fully. She stepped lightly around the sleeping forms of her friends and the Legion soldiers. She stopped when she heard a sound that was incongruent with the situation. She waited to see if it would be repeated. After a while, it was. She had not been mistaken, it was a moan. Ellana turned around on her heels to find out, from where the sound had originated. She was not looking forward to confronting more darkspawn.

There was some movement at the edge of the mass of the sleeping bodies. Ellana went closer to check it out. Fenris was moving in his sleep. And moaning. Judging by the blissful look on his face, he was having a fantastic dream. Judging by the movements and sounds and the tent his burgeoning erection was making of his bedroll, it was a sex dream.

Ellana was sure that she was blushing. Not to mention the ache that was making itself known between her legs. She felt guilty for getting so turned on while staring at the poor man, who was only sleeping, for crying out loud! She considered leaving him to enjoy his dream, but the people around him were beginning to stir and if they woke up to see him doing, what he was doing, he would be mercilessly teased.

Ellana crouched next to Fenris and extended her hand to shake him by the shoulder.

“Fenris,” she said quietly so that she would not wake the others, “Fenris, it is time to wake up.”

A hand reached out to yank Ellana down and she lost her balance. Before she knew it, she was on her back and he had rolled so that he was mostly on her. His warm, hard body was pressing her into the ground and his left hand pulled her head towards him so that he was able to kiss her. The kiss was demanding and passionate. Ellana had no idea, whether he was still dreaming or in a state between waking and sleeping, but the kiss was incredible. It lit her on fire, which was not subdued by the fact that his erection was pressing against her thigh. On the contrary, in fact.

Ellana had to fight herself not to get sucked into the feeling and continue in the course Fenris was setting. She could not be certain that he was aware of what was happening. She would not take advantage of a sleeping person. That would be wrong. Oh, so good, but wrong.

Ellana pulled away as much as she could manage.

“Fenris,” she said and pinched him a little, “You need to wake up.”

Fenris stilled. There was a moment of silence before he opened his eyes and took in the situation they were in. His pupils were as wide as saucers, though he seemed as confused as he was aroused.

“What is happening?” Fenris asked with a groggy voice.

“You were having a very good dream. I would have let you have it, but the others looked like they were going to wake up and I did not want you to be caught with your… You know,” Ellana flicked her eyes briefly down to refer to his arousal, “I was crouched down to awake you when you yanked me and somehow I wound up down here. I thought it wisest to make another attempt at waking you.”

“I groped you again,” he said, “I apologize. I could not tell the difference between dream and reality. I took your appearance as a continuation of the dream I was having.”

“You were dreaming about me?” Ellana asked hopefully. If that was the case, she was in no hurry to leave his arms.

Fenris gave her a meaningful look.

“Yes.”

“Was it a nice dream?” Ellana asked. She smiled at Fenris and got fractionally closer to him.

“I think so,” he said, “But you might not agree. Do you wish to see, what it was, in order to provide an opinion?”

“That sounds fair,” she replied, “You never know for certain, what other people like.”

Fenris kissed her again. This time she knew that he was awake. It was even better that the previous kiss if that was possible. It went on and on, providing their hands ample opportunity for exploring. When they finally had to come up for air, they were both flushed.

“I like your dream,” Ellana said, “I would dearly love to continue living it, but the others can wake up at any moment and, before we realize it, we will have an audience. As much as dreams should be shared, these sorts of dreams are best shared with only one person. Besides, I do not fancy being jumped by darkspawn while having a shag.”

“You are right,” Fenris admitted, “You should get up before I change my mind and seduce you into staying regardless of onlookers or darkspawn.”

“You cannot say stuff like that and expect me to want to go after that,” Ellana grumbled but got up anyway, “You should probably go somewhere and take care of that on your own.”

“It will go away on its own in a minute, as long as you do, as well,” he replied, closed his eyes, and concentrated.

Ellana left Fenris to his task and went to make breakfast. Sleepy people began appearing and some halfhearted good mornings were exchanged. One by one, her friends joined her and she grinned at them. This morning was the best she had had in a long time and it had happened in the Deep Roads. Who would have thought?

“Why are you so freakishly happy?” Sera asked.

“His eyes, burning, his body, so warm, his tongue, so clever, his hands, so…”

“Cole!”

Ellana was sure that her face was red all the way from the roots of her hair to the edge of her collar. When would the spirit learn not to say things like that? Ellana did not like the way Sera perked up.

“You already got some at this hour? Who with? Did you bang a dwarf? How was it? Tell me, I’ve never tried a dwarf.”

Ellana gave Cole a murderous look that may have been wasted on the spirit, but he must have gotten the idea from her thoughts for he did not say a word.

“There was a nice dream,” Ellana replied.

Sera looked at her suspiciously. With Cole remaining quiet, the rogue could never be certain if the spirit had been describing her dream or something that had really happened.

“You dream-banged droopy ears again?” Sera asked, “I thought you were done with that.”

Ellana realized that Fenris had arrived in time to hear Sera’s question. She could sense him standing there without saying a word. She could not turn to look at him but she assumed that he was not happy.

“Of course not,” Ellana stated, “Solas has been smart enough not to visit my dreams since we broke up. He must know that I would kick him out. No, first kick his ass and then kick him out. This was a different dream. A better one, I think.”

Ellana waited what Fenris would do. She was relieved when he took some breakfast and sat down next to her.

“What are you talking about?” Fenris asked.

“Inquisitor here had a dirty dream which he blurted out,” Sera said and pointed at Cole, who stayed silent, “I thought that she had dream-sexed her ex but she says that she did not.”

“Dream-sexed?”

“Solas is able to enter the dreams of others,” Ellana explained, “He used visit mine sometimes, when we were seeing each other.”

“He is a somniari, then,” Fenris said, his expression grave, “He is more dangerous than I thought.”

“Who’s a what?” Varric asked. He had arrived a moment earlier and wanted to know, what was going on.

“The witch’s abomination is a somniari,” Fenris said, “Like Feynriel. He is dangerous.”

“You have an abomination?” Varric asked Ellana.

“He means Solas,” Ellana said, “Every person with any power is dangerous, Fenris.”

“This sounds way too heavy a conversation to be had in the morning,” the recently arrived Dorian commented.

“That’s true,” Bull said, “The right order of things is to first kill the bad guys and then talk about it, if needed.”

“Absolutely, if the enemies are darkspawn,” Blackwall said, “Lucky for us, that’s what we have here, in the belly of the earth.”

“Belly? Feels more like the arse,” Sera said, “We’re really deep down, right?”

“You have a point,” Valta said, “Though not about the arse part. I think that lift may take us under the Deep Roads.”

“Oh, wonderful!” Varric thrilled in fake enthusiasm, “What’s worse than the Deep Roads? Shit that’s under the Deep Roads.”

Ellana grinned at her friend.

“Are you still not feeling the call of the Stone, Varric?”

“Hell no,” he replied, “The deeper we go, the more I want to get out of here.”

“Inquisitor,” Renn said, “We have several operations for the Inquisition to do here. Would you like to do them now?”

“People should get started on them,” Ellana said thoughtfully, “But I think that the most important thing is to get the quakes to stop. After we take care of that, we can do the other stuff.”

“Makes sense,” Renn said and nodded, “Are you ready to go?”

“Almost,” Ellana replied and got up, “Dorian, Cole, and Blackwall, get ready. The rest of you can take the day and relax.”

“How do you relax underground?” Varric asked.

“I do not,” Ellana replied, “I will not relax, until I have the sky over my head and solid, un-quaking ground under my feet. But you could sleep or play cards or discuss the nature of our existence. Whichever takes your fancy.”

“I would like to go with you,” Fenris said, “Why can we not all go? We would be more efficient.”

“You need to rest, Fenris,” Ellana replied, “And these small, enclosed spaces are not the optimal setting for big groups.”

Fenris looked like he was going to protest but Ellana stared him down. She would have wanted to hold his hand or give him a kiss to reassure him but she did not dare.

“I’ll look after her,” Cole said and placed a hand on Ellana’s shoulder. She had no idea, why he had done that, but she put it up to the spirit’s quirks. He had probably responded to something one of her friends had thought.

The party made their preparations and took the lift down. The caves they found were different from the Deep Roads. They were darker and wetter. You could hardly see where you were going. There were creepy eyes staring at you and you could hear things shifting in the shadows. Ellana felt like hugging herself.

“I never thought I would say this, but I miss the Hinterlands,” she said.

“The Hinterlands?” Renn asked while observing the caves ahead.

“A very annoying place with suicidal populace,” Ellana replied, “We have had to spend there more time than I would like. But after seeing this, I would gladly take my vacation there, because that would mean getting out of here.”

“It’s not very pretty, I grant you,” Valta said, “But we might be the first people to come here for centuries! There aren’t even any darkspawn.”

“But there is something,” Renn said. Then he was shot.

The shot came out of the darkness. Renn looked down to take in the damage. After assessing the situation, he charged with vengeance. Ellana and the others did the same. They saw several dwarf-sized figures in armor. The enemies said nothing, they just fought. A couple of the assailants had weapons that looked like huge bows. One of them used his, which resulted in everyone on their backs, aching.

“What do I always say?” Ellana asked when they got up and targeted the bowman.

“Kill the fucking archer first,” her team chorused, even Cole. It was strange to hear him swear.

“Yes! So let’s do that!”

When the unknown assailants were dead, Renn fell to his knees and died. Valta was shocked. She explained that he had never wanted this life to begin with – he had joined the Legion to protect his family from losing their caste. It was not uncommon for someone to choose the life of a Legionnaire to help their relations.

Valta said some words to guide Renn to the Stone or whatever it was called. Ellana gave her a moment and went to look at the bodies of the attackers. They were dwarfs, as she had thought, with lyrium sown in their armor.

“They offered no words, just violence,” Valta said, “How could this be? Why would they kill one of their own kind?”

Ellana nudged Cole that he would help the woman. She had no words for the disillusioned dwarf. She had seen that people did not hesitate to kill their own kind. She had seen that being the same race did not mean that people would feel kinship with each other. She had also seen too many, who were willing to kill you, no questions asked. She could see from Blackwall’s face that he was thinking the same thing.

They ventured further into the caves. There were more of the silent, angry dwarves with too big crossbows. They were sometimes accompanied with big animals the likes of which Ellana had never seen.

“What were those?” Dorian asked.

“I have no idea,” Ellana said, “A breed of nug, maybe?”

“They belong in this place,” Cole said.

“Yeah, I’d hate to see them outside,” Blackwall replied.

They found a carving that Valta judged to be an ancient Wall of Memories. She could only translate a little but that little was not comforting.

“I don’t like the sound of these Sha-Brytol,” Blackwall said.

“Self-mutilation is never a good sign,” Dorian agreed, “Who would cut out their own tongue and do all that other stuff the text mentioned? That is pure madness. Not to mention disgusting.”

“People of strong faith,” Valta said, “I think we should continue to find the answers. We must be getting closer.”

Ellana nodded and they moved on. They ran into more Sha-Brytol. Among them were some, who could make the earth shake. Ellana thought that the skill would be useful but not one she wished to encounter in an enemy.

“There is something strange on the other side,” Valta said.

“You mean that you have not found anything strange so far?” Ellana asked, “That makes me nervous.”

They advanced cautiously, which turned out to be a wise move. Someone blew up a bridge just as they were about to step on it. Ellana had to fight for balance so that she would not to fall.

“That was no accident,” Valta said.

“You don’t say,” Blackwall replied.

“We can take that ledge if we are careful,” Valta said and pointed at a decently wide ledge a little below them.

Ellana led the way. She jumped onto the ledge and walked over to the cave mouth. When she turned to look at her companions, she realized that not everyone was as cavalier about heights as she was.

“Having some trouble there, are we?”

“No trouble at all,” replied the suspiciously pale-faced Dorian. He and Blackwall were edging on slowly, their backs against the wall. Cole was unperturbed.

“Come on, guys, do not close your eyes,” Ellana told them, “Look at the pretty abyss with all the colors and mist and emptiness.”

“You are evil!” Dorian replied, “You have successfully hidden it for a long time, but now it has finally come out. That innocent smile is just an act, a clever ruse to put people off their guard.”

“When have you ever seen me with an innocent smile?” Ellana asked, “You can do this, Dorian, it is not difficult. And when you get here, the scenery is worth the horror you are feeling now.”

“Easy for you to say – you can fly,” Blackwall pointed out.

“You don’t have to be afraid,” Cole said with a kind voice, “The rock is solid and the ledge is wide.”

Blackwall mumbled something about his feelings on being treated like a child, but Ellana did not catch more than that. The rest of the party made their way to her and took a moment to appreciate the view Ellana had praised.

“I have seen worse things,” Dorian said.

“The broken future with all the red crystals, hogging my dreams, even after the possibility has passed. The people with edged voices, faces devoid of hope, all the fear and despair that make me want to scream into my pillow,” Cole said.

“That would be one of those things, yes,” Dorian replied, “I would appreciate it if you did not bring up the others.”

“What has happened to you people?” Valta asked.

“It is a long story,” Ellana answered with a sigh, “You can read all about it from Varric’s books about me. The first one was a big hit and the second one is about to come out.”

“I might do that,” the Shaper replied.

They found another Wall of Memories. It contained further information on the Titan.

“It shapes the Stone. It is the Stone. It sculpts the world within and without,” Valta read.

“Is that not, what a Shaper does?” Ellana asked.

“In a way, yes,” Valta replied, “Titans could be the very first children of the Stone. That is huge. How could such an integral part of history be missing from the memories?”

“You said it yourself that the Shapers were ready to take away a memory someone did not like,” Dorian pointed out, “Maybe someone did not like the existence of Titans?”

“But this is different,” Valta replied, “This is bigger than that.”

“If you allow yourself to slip in the little things, it gets easier to let bigger and bigger things slide,” Blackwall said, “People are far too easily corrupted, especially, when they are doing the corrupting themselves.”

“It may have been too painful to remember,” Cole said, “Maybe they needed to forget.”

“People should not forget history,” Ellana said, “They should learn from it. If that happened, every generation would not be cursed with repeating the same mistakes.”

“They could make their own instead,” Dorian stated.

“Yes, that is much more fun,” Ellana agreed with a grin.

The tunnel led them into a massive cavern. It was lined with untapped lyrium veins that shone their light upon it. It was incredibly beautiful.

“This was worth the horror,” Dorian said and everyone agreed.

Ellana closed her eyes for a moment and simply enjoyed the feeling of the cavern.

“All this lyrium… This place is intoxicating,” she said, “I can feel the power. It would be almost too easy to cast.”

“Good, because we have company,” Blackwall said and pointed at a group of Sha-Brytol that was closing in on them.

When the fight was over, they were faced with a wall. If they wanted to continue, they had to break through it. Valta suggested that they try the weapon of the earthshaker. It worked, though using the weapon on the wall made it self-destruct for some reason. They would have to kill one earthshaker for every wall they would come across. Luckily, they could.

“Tell me that I am seeing things,” Dorian said, “There cannot be an actual ocean under the ground, can there?”

“This place is getting freakier by the minute,” Blackwall said and shook his head.

“You don’t like the ocean?” Cole asked.

“I like the ocean, where it belongs – above ground,” Blackwall replied.

“I agree,” Dorian said, “What is the point of going to a beach if you cannot sunbathe?”

“To loot, to collect herbs, to kill dragons,” Ellana listed, “We collected Bull from a beach. And Crestwood had a beach, too, with lots of corpses.”

“There are about to be corpses here, as well,” Valta said when they were attacked again.

The attacks kept coming. They had barely killed the previous group when a new one came out of nowhere. It was strange and it made no sense. If there was a seemingly endless number of attackers, why not charge all at once and kill the enemies with certainty instead of the waves and waves of attacks?

“Who is in charge of these yahoos?” Ellana asked, “Their tactics make no sense.”

“Maybe their goal is not to kill us but to annoy us?” Dorian offered, “They will charge at us until we leave on our own account out of cheer irritation?”

“Sounds like bureaucracy to me,” Blackwall replied, “Could they be that evil?”

“Well,” Ellana pondered, “They have voluntarily taken away their own tongues and entombed their bodies and whatnot. I would not put it past them. Maybe Titans came up with bureaucracy and have passed the skill on to their followers? We could be a wall away from being buried in paperwork.”

“I don’t understand,” Cole said.

“You are blessed,” Ellana replied, “Can you tell, what they are thinking?”

“Duty,” Cole said.

“Is that all?”

“Does ‘aaaaargh’ count?”

“That is debatable.”

Ellana was getting bored with the fight. She decided to do something to make it more exciting and drew her spirit sword. She could at least use the skills she had learned in her spars with Fenris, since there were so many targets available.

“What are you doing?” Dorian asked.

“Practicing,” she replied, “One of these days, I am going to beat Fenris and take that smug look from his face.”

“So he does have more expressions than looking sour? I am happy to hear it.”

Ellana thought of the way Fenris had looked that morning, his eyes burning with desire. Oh, he had other expressions, all right. Ones that could make her knees go weak, her heart beat faster, and her smalls soak.

“I think that was the last one,” Blackwall said when the final eathshaker fell.

Ellana looked at the slew of dead bodies.

“If there is a demon that makes corpses walk and summons these buggers to fight us again, I am going back home,” she said.

“That’s fair,” Valta said, “Let’s collect the weapons and blow that wall.”

They found yet another informative wall. It said that only the pure could pass further. They deduced that the pure must mean the Sha-Brytol. Valta wondered if it was the lyrium that made them pure. They had it on their armor, after all, and the destruction of lyrium mines was their thing. Perhaps they did not look kindly upon mining lyrium.

“This looks like a good spot for camping,” Ellana said, “Who feels like going back and bringing everyone else here? It should not take long, since everything from there to here is dead.”

Dorian and Blackwall shook their heads.

“I’ll go,” Cole said and vanished.

\--

“Broody, are you awake? It’s your turn.”

Fenris was shaken out of his thoughts by Varric. He took a look at his cards and added some coin into the pot.

“My apologies,” he said, “I was not paying attention.”

“Clearly,” the Qunari said, “You should concentrate. It’s more difficult to call your bluffs if even you don’t know, whether or not you are bluffing.”

“Like you could tell,” the loud rogue said, “He always looks the same.”

“I don’t know,” Varric said, “He’s been out of it today.”

“Stop talking about me as if I am not present,” Fenris replied.

“You haven’t been, have you?” Varric asked, “Are you all right? You have been very absent-minded today.”

“You are imagining things. I am fine.”

Fenris knew that he had not been paying attention all day long. He had been too busy thinking about the morning. Or not thinking about it, because thinking about it made his cock stir, and he did not want that.

Fenris was angry at himself for having spent most of the day obsessing about the witch. Worrying for her, wondering about her thoughts, being angry for having been left behind, being jealous of the men, who were not. His mood had not been helped by the occasional saucy comments the others had made about her. And the demon had looked him in the eye and placed a hand on her before they had left. She had allowed it to protect her, not him.

The reasonable part of Fenris understood why he had been left behind. It was a custom of the witch to rotate the people in the party to give everyone enough rest. The reasonable part of him also understood why she had stopped their moment from going further in the morning. The not so reasonable part of him would have wanted to fuck her good and hard regardless of the others. That part of him would have wanted to go with her and protect her from all the dangers that were lurking in the dark. But that part had no say.

“We’ve found a place for a new camp,” said the demon, who had appeared out of nowhere, “You can follow me, it’s safe. We killed everything, but not before they killed Renn.”

Fenris shoved his cards into the pile that Varric collected into his pocket. They took their things and followed the demon into the lift.

There was chatter as they traveled in the tunnels. Fenris walked alone to better observe his surroundings. He did not like the new corpses and the things the demon told about them. He did not like the writing on the walls or the collapsed bridge and the narrow ledge. A tight ball of worry was forming inside his chest. He knew it to be irrational but he could not help it. Damn the witch and her obstinate self-sufficiency!

Fenris needed to let out his frustration, so he kicked a body. Not a sensible move, since he hurt his big toe on its armor. He ended up jumping on one leg, holding the other and swearing¬.

“Are you all right?” Varric asked.

“I am fine.”

“That corpse just had it coming, then,” the dwarf replied.

“I am not fond of being idle.”

“While others are not,” Varric completed his sentence, “Don’t worry, she can take care of herself.”

“What are you talking about, dwarf?”

Varric gave him a look that was full of meaning.

“I’m not blind, Broody. You two have a connection. I think it’s good for the both of you. Just don’t hurt her, like Chuckles did. She’s tough but she’s not unbreakable.”

Fenris did not know what to say. The whole thing was so new that he had no idea, what it was and where it was going. If it was going anywhere. If he wanted it to.

Fenris fell back into his own thoughts for the rest of the trek. He thought of the peculiarity of future. After the death of Hawke, he did not want one. During the time after that – had it already been a year? – he had come to accept that a future was inevitable. If he could have… It might even be something to look forward to.

Varric, who had been walking in front of Fenris, stopped so suddenly that Fenris walked into him. He looked ahead to find out the cause for the sudden stop. It was not an enemy but a sight so beautiful that it would make the coarsest of men want to write a poem. An entire valley was lined with lyrium.

They advanced slowly through the valley and admired its beauty. They were not the only ones to do so. Fenris’ heart leaped when he noticed the witch sitting on a ledge, looking at the scenery. He let the others go ahead and headed towards her. When he reached her, he stopped to stand by her side and look at the same view she was admiring. After some time, she placed her hand on his calf and fondled it absent-mindedly.

“How was your day, lethallin?”

“Boring,” he replied.

“As was mine. I realized about halfway that I should have let you come with us. It would have brightened my day immensely.”

Fenris smiled.

“From now on, you will know better,” he said.

“Yes, I will,” she replied, got up, and turned towards him.

Fenris took her hands into his. He moved their joined hands behind her back so that she had to come closer to him. He pulled her against him and bent down to kiss her. It had been too long since he had done that, even though it had been the same morning. He tried to convey to her, how he had worried and how glad he was to see that everything was all right. She made a happy murmur that pleased him to no end.

“I am happy to see you, too,” she said and kissed him again, with more passion this time.

It took them quite a while to separate. Even after they did, Fenris kept holding her hand, when they walked towards the camp. The huge amount of bodies made him stop.

“Is this your idea of boring?”

“Is this not your idea of boring?”

Fenris gave her a look.

“They just kept coming! They spawned out of nowhere to attack us like a hundred of their brethren before them and then died like everyone else! They had no strategy! They just came, did their thing, and died!”

“Do you not usually do your thing first and then come?” Fenris asked.

She stared at him like he had grown a second head. Then she started laughing uncontrollably. It went on for a while.

“You have spent too much time with us,” she said, wiping tears out of her eyes, “But thank you, I needed that.”

“You are easy to please, witch.”

“You can test that any time you want,” she said with her voice full of promise, “Once we sort out this mess and reach the surface.”

“I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the mistakes and that this took so long. My job has been hogging my time because 'tis the season. I feel like I could soon serve as an extra in the Walking Dead.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, kudos, and comments! It is awesome to get those emails that tell me that someone has liked this scribble :)


	4. The Makings of A Good Story

”How is this possible?”

Fenris’ eyes roamed the newly found scenery and he shared the witch’s wonder. The sizeable cave was more luminous than anything under so much earth should be. The ceiling was high and had rock formations hanging from it. There were intricate buildings with bridges and ladders. There were even green plants.

“No idea, Boss,” the Qunari replied.

Varric whistled.

“Now I almost understand the dwarves, who insist on living underground,” he said, “This place is not so bad.”

“Not so bad?” the witch thrilled, “There is light! There are plants! There is even a tree!”

The witch was clearly giddy with joy for seeing the aforementioned things again. She was practically dancing around with her hands raised, a huge grin brightening her features. She made her way to the nearest tree and hugged it. The expression on her face… She had never looked so young and carefree. It occurred to Fenris that she might be younger than he had presumed. He had never learned her age. No one had ever mentioned it and she had not celebrated a birthday during the time he had known her. It was possible that no one but herself knew how old she was.

Fenris considered the probable age of the witch. He came up with the conclusion that he had to be at least ten years her senior. It felt like a lot, but it did not seem to bother her. She had made it clear that she found him desirable. And she had been with the abomination, who looked much older than Fenris. A lot of life experience fit into a decade, but hers had not been a regular, boring life with nothing happening. Her past couple of years alone had been more eventful than an entire life for some people. Maybe that was one of the reasons she was attracted to men, who were older than her.

“We’re happy that you’re happy, Inquisitor,” Varric said, “But if you don’t stop flitting about like a giant butterfly, we’re going to have to revisit the leash idea. For your own protection.”

“I can hold it, Boss,” the Qunari offered quickly, “It would be no trouble. I’d enjoy it.”

Fenris bit back the growl he felt like making.

“Why are you hugging a tree, witch?” Fenris asked instead, to change the subject.

“I have not seen one in so long,” she replied like it was obvious, “I have missed plants. Not that I have not seen other green things that have pleased me immensely.”

The witch gave him a look that he could feel in his entire body from the tip of his head to the ends of his toes. He realized that she had referred to his eyes. He gave her a hungry look from under his fringe. Varric noticed it and chuckled a bit.

When the witch finally let go of the tree, they moved further into the cave. At the heart of it, they saw… Well, a heart. It was made of lyrium and it beat the same rhythm Valta had been following. It was so strong in the luminous cave that they all could hear it. Fenris could even feel it.

Since they had not found a Titan, but a city, Valta said that they may have been wrong about the Titan. The witch grew thoughtful and said that she disagreed.

“This area feels different from the Deep Roads,” she said, “This feels organic. We have read that Titans can shape the Stone, that they are the Stone. Something that big… I think we have been looking at this all wrong. The Titan is different from us. We have been expecting a huge monster to jump at us because, let’s face it, it is us. Stuff like that happens to us all the time. It is stranger when that is not happening. But I think that we have not seen the Titan because we are inside it.”

Everyone considered her hypothesis. It seemed legitimate. Fenris looked again at the beating lyrium heart in the center of the cave. The heart of a Titan… And he was laced with its blood, if that was what you could call lyrium. He had received his powers from the blood of a mythical creature that had been lost from history and forgotten even by the dwarves, who made a point of remembering everything. Fucking Danarius had never known.

It was somehow appropriate that the markings were made of the blood of some creature. They had been the weapon to cause many others to bleed. Fenris had no idea how many things he had killed during the years. The number had to be frightening at that point. Perhaps it was a curse of some sort, resulting from the ritual that gave him his markings of blood. There was a saying that money followed money. Maybe it was the same with blood. If the blood did not come about by vengeance, then by some cosmic law unknown and unseen to any mortal.

A single word jumped at Fenris, when his thoughts were streaming – vallaslin. The blood mage had said that it meant blood writing. It referred to the tattoos the Dalish had on their faces. Did this mean that he had vallaslin, too? He did not know how to feel about that. He had never felt any kinship with the Dalish. As far as he was concerned, they were conceited idiots, who lived in illusions of grandeur and thought themselves superior to everyone else. The ones he had met had made it perfectly clear that they were not interested in a flat ear like him. They had treated him with the same superiority as the magisters. The blood mage had not, but she had had her own issues.

Then there was the witch. His witch. She was different. She did not present herself like she felt superior to everyone else. She was curious of the world and wanted to find the truth about history, even at the cost of cutting her faith in the things she had been thought. But, as Fenris saw it, she had never been a part of her clan. Not really. She had not been treated as an equal as she should have been. Even though she had lived with a clan for her whole life, she had been disillusioned for a long time. She did not think the Dalish perfect. She did not think that they were right about everything. Her time with the Inquisition had proven that they had been wrong about many things they had held dear. The meaning of the vallaslin, for one. She had told him that they had been slave markings. It followed that it would be even more appropriate to call his markings vallaslin, as well. Fasta vas, he had something in common with the Dalish!

A light touch to his shoulder pulled Fenris out of his thoughts.

“Is something wrong?” the witch asked and looked at him with her sweet eyes full of concern.

“Not yet, but I am sure that, in a moment, something will be wrong,” Fenris replied.

The witch rolled her eyes at him.

“We’ve got company!”

“I told you,” Fenris said.

At the end of a bridge, a group of Sha-Brytol was coming at them.

“If I die, Orzammar must know the truth,” Valta said. 

It seemed to Fenris that the dwarf had gained a dramatic flair after discovering, what the Titan was. The group that was attacking them was no way threatening enough to cause them trouble. Any member of the Inquisition party could have taken them alone.

“Relax,” the witch replied, “I did not beat Corypheus to die here.”

It took them no time at all to bring the attackers down. They descended towards the lyrium heart via many ladders. Some levels had small groups of Sha-Brytol that attacked them on sight regardless of Valta’s attempts at communication.

“There is no point in talking to them, dwarf,” Fenris said, “They are driven insane by the lyrium they have been taking. They are determined to kill us in defense of the Titan. Nothing you or anyone else could say will make a difference.”

“Could you speak to them?” Valta asked, “You have lyrium. Maybe they see you as pure?”

“I highly doubt that,” he replied, “They have rushed me as well as the rest of us and I do not think that they have done that to hug me.”

“Who wouldn’t want to hug you, Broody?” Varric said, “Your whole appearance screams: ‘hug me!’”

“I would,” the Qunari promised.

“Try and die, Qunari.”

“Boys, boys, peace,” the witch said, “I will hug you both, if you play nicely.”

“Playing? Mmm, I like the sound of that,” the Qunari replied.

“Please, stop dawdling,” Valta said, “We need to see the heart and end the quakes.”

The blue heart was at the end of a bridge. Fenris could feel his lyrium beating with the same rhythm. They crossed the bridge and stepped carefully closer to the heart when something flew out of it and hit Valta squarely in the chest. She went down and stayed down. The others had no time to do anything, since a stone wall came up between them and the Shaper. The lyrium heart pulled rocks towards itself. They formed an all too familiar looking monster.

“A rock wraith,” Fenris said sullenly and attacked the thing.

“A what now?”

“A rock wraith,” Varric said from the back, “We ran across one in the Deep Roads when my ass-wipe of a brother left us there to die. It was a demon, I think. A real pain to kill.”

“Are you sure that’s what this is?” the Qunari asked.

“I cannot be certain. You know rock monsters – they all kind of look alike,” Fenris quipped.

“As far as I am concerned,” the witch said, “We do not need to know its name. It wants to kill us, we should kill it. We can put a label on the dead pile of rocks afterwards if you feel like it.”

This particular rock monster was even more irritating to kill than the previous one. It kept slamming at them with its tentacles. It almost wiped Varric off the platform but the witch was able to catch him in time. Fenris made a mental note to thank her for it later. His friends were few and far between. He did not want to lose another.

They must have made some progress for the monster changed its tactics. Runes began appearing on the ground a moment before a rock spike shot out.

“Watch out,” the witch yelled, “Look, where you step, and move on constantly. Do not let it catch you, it will hurt. Believe me, I am speaking from experience.”

Fenris wanted to see how she was doing but the rate at which the spikes shot out made it impossible. He had no choice but to look out for himself and pray that the others were doing the same. There were some screams and grunts that made his mind uneasy but there was nothing to be done.

As soon as the spikes stopped, he attacked the creature again.

“Is everyone all right?” the witch called out.

There were affirmative noises from around the platform. At least everyone was still alive and attacking the monster with power grown out of irritation.

“I must say that I prefer the monsters above ground to the ones under it,” the witch said, “They are much less exciting.”

“You don’t like excitement?” Varric asked.

“Oh, I like excitement, where it belongs – in books, stories…”

“The court,” Varric said.

“The bedroom,” the Qunari added.

“All of the above, yes,” she replied, “But I prefer not to be excited about what the enemy will be doing next. I would rather know that a dragon will breathe fire on me than guess whether or not a rock monster will be shoving a spike up my ass.”

“That sounded so dirty,” Varric pointed out, “It sounded like an ancient rock monster is trying to… You know.”

“Let’s all hope that it only sounded like that,” the witch replied, “I have nothing against something rock hard being thrust into the right place but an ancient rock monster has no business being anywhere near that place.”

“Witch, please!”

Fenris felt like his head might explode. Along with another member. He wanted to take her right away but since that was not an option, he put his sexual frustration into the fight. That may have been the witch’s plan.

“Begging is always appreciated,” she said.

“Taarsidath-an halsaam!” the Qunari intoned.

“Oh, no, you will not!”

“How will you stop me?”

There was a moment of nothing but battle.

“I will draw a picture of Mother Giselle on your hand!”

“How is that supposed to stop me, Boss?”

“What are you going on about?” Fenris asked.

“Trust me, you do not want to know,” the witch replied, “Crap, it is doing the spike thing again. Run for the comfort of your ass!”

They did, but the noises told that not everyone was successful. Once the attack stopped, they resumed hacking the monster into pieces. Finally, it stopped flailing, and turned into a pile of dead rocks.

The wall that had separated them from the bridge collapsed and they rushed to see if Valta was all right. The witch tried to help her, but the dwarf cast a spell at her. Fenris pulled her quickly away, ready to shove her behind his back. He had no idea, how a dwarf could cast a spell, but he did not care. It was more important to find out if the dwarf was a danger to them.

Valta explained with an eerie calm that everything was all right. That the Titan had been disturbed by the Breach, not the lyrium mining. That there would be no more quakes. That the Titan was calmer now that it had a connection to one of its children, her. That the rock monster was not a Titan, but a mere echo, a Guardian. That she was staying behind to find out more, to communicate with the Titan. That she could take care of herself.

“That was…” the witch said, puzzled, ”I have no words.”

“That’s not much of a story,” Varric agreed, “The ending kind of sucks.”

“She found her calling,” Fenris said, “She felt that all of this had happened to bring here there, to communicate with the Titan. Is it not an ending to find, what you have been looking for, even if you did not know it at the time?”

The witch looked at him thoughtfully. After some time, she gave him a bright smile.

“I think that is a beautiful way of looking at it, lethallin,” she said, “You are right, though. Not all stories have to be about finding a treasure or killing the bad guys or dying heroically. The journey you take to find yourself and your purpose in life is a pretty good story on its own.”

“Only if you include porn,” Varric pointed out.

“Well, obviously, porn is a given,” the witch conceded, “Or some erotica, at least, if not full-blown porn.”

“Full-blown porn?” the Qunari asked.

“Do you not think that blowing is involved in porn?”

“I know that it is. You can’t have porn without blowing.”

“I am so happy that Cullen is not within earshot,” the witch said, “His head would explode, poor man.”

“I don’t know,” the Qunari said, “He’s been married for months. He must know some things.”

“Still. He may be the most innocent man I know. Except for Cole, who does not understand enough to be embarrassed, so there is no fun in teasing him.”

Fenris just smiled at their chatter and shook his head. When had he become so accustomed to their dirty banter? He had no idea.

\--

They had reached the lowest camp and decided to spend the night there. Fenris was sharpening the blade of his sword when he caught the witch at the edge of his vision. He looked up and saw her nudge her head towards a nearby cave mouth. Fenris stood up and followed her there.

When they were out of sight, the witch pulled Fenris into a kiss he eagerly returned. He had been dying to get his hands on her all day long. It was a relief to feel her body against his and devour her mouth with his.

“Are we finally leaving this Makerforsaken place so that I can have you?” Fenris asked when they stopped for air.

“Sorry, not yet,” the witch replied, “There are some things we have to do before it. Our people have been hard at work while we have been playing with monsters down there. They have made bridges and ladders for us to find new monsters to play with.”

“So, you are saying that you would rather play with monsters than with me?”

“I am saying that I want to save the best for last,” she replied.

Just for that, he had to kiss her all over again.


	5. Worth The Wait?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains some NSFW material. You have been warned.

”There aren’t any more quakes, right? Why do we have to make all these stops? Why can’t we go straight up and get the fuck out of here?” Sera asked.

“And miss all the monsters and treasure?” Ellana replied, “Besides, our people have done a great job rebuilding these bridges and whatnot. It would be rude not to use them.”

“Are you willing to die not to be rude?” Fenris asked.

“Oh, tosh, we are not going to die,” Ellana answered, “We are going to have marvelous adventures Varric can cover in his next book.”

“If you think that people want to hear about small stuff like this, you are wrong,” Varric replied.

“People care about small stuff,” Cole said, “Life is mostly small stuff. The touch of his hand, the smell of her hair, the taste of the cookie. All of it small, but it matters to them.”

“Yes, kid, but people don’t want to read about it. Not too much, anyway,” Varric said, “You can, for example, tell that the hero dressed in his armor before meeting his enemy; that’s fine. But if you describe how he put on every little piece, the reader will be bored before you get to the breastplate.”

“Putting it on piece by piece, that’s boring,” Bull said, “Taking it off piece by piece, that’s stripping.”

“And stripping isn’t boring?” Cole asked.

“No,” sounded the unanimous reply which only served to confuse the spirit more. 

“Do not worry about it, Cole,” Ellana comforted the spirit, “You do not need to understand.”

“It wouldn’t hurt, though,” Dorian said, “If you are going to keep living among the rest of us, you might want to consider looking into the pleasures this world has to offer.”

“I like helping people,” Cole replied.

“So does the Inquisitor,” Blackwall said, “But she does other stuff, too. So could you, Cole.”

“Like kiss the people I like,” the spirit said, “She likes that a lot. Could I do that?”

Ellana could feel all eyes turning to stare at her. Her neck was burning up. Please, do not pick up on that, please…

“The Inquisitor has been kissing people then, yes?” Dorian asked.

“Oh, look, an ancient door!” Ellana said loudly and rushed forward, “I cannot wait to see, what sort of horror lurks behind it. Let’s open it and find out!”

“I knew it wasn’t a dream!” Sera exclaimed, “You were way too happy! You’d made out with someone!”

“Hey, look, an emissary!” Ellana squealed, for never had she been so happy to see one, “We should probably kill it, should we not?”

“This conversation isn’t over,” Dorian threatened her, but started casting.

The emissary died way too easily. Why could it not have been as difficult to kill as the one they had faced a few days earlier? That would have made the others forget, what they had been talking about.

“That’s done,” Sera said when the emissary was history, “Back to the mystery kisser. Who’ve you been banging?”

“I have not been banging anyone,” Ellana said and decided that she needed to subtly change the course of the conversation, “Not since Solas and I broke up, anyway. It has been such a dry spell.”

“You should bang Dario,” Sera said, “He’s your type.”

“She’s right,” Dorian agreed, “You should sleep with him. He acts like the option would not be displeasing to him. And he is intelligent, resourceful, and handsome. You have been alone long enough and you could do worse. Can you honestly say that you haven’t thought about it?”

“I remember her saying something about that before we left Skyhold,” Varric reminded them.

“Yeah, me too,” Sera said, “She said that it would make him smile, or something like that.”

Ellana found herself between rock and a hard place. Literally, since they were still underground. She had no idea, what the thing between her and Fenris was, so she did not want to draw attention to it. But she had heard the sound of Fenris’ knuckles popping right behind her when they had talked about her having sex with Dario. She could feel the warrior hovering close to her in a manner that suggested that he was not unconcerned with the subject.

“Oh, come on, I was joking,” Ellana said, “You know how lowbrow my sense of humor is. Can you imagine sleeping with Dario? Just as you are in the midst of sex, he whispers into your ear: ‘it’s inevitable that this ends’. That is not something one wishes to hear in bed.”

“Yeah, like droopy ears yelling ‘elven glory’ at the happy moment was much better,” Sera quipped.

“He never did that!”

“Can you please stop talking about the witch’s sex life?” Fenris begged, spitting out the last two words, “No one wants to hear about it. There must be many matters more worthy of discussing.”

“I agree,” Blackwall stated.

“Spoilsports,” Sera grumbled, but let the subject lie.

Ellana sighed in relief. When the others were busy following after a tunnel they had yet to explore, she turned to Fenris and touched his cheek lightly.

“I am sorry,” she whispered.

Fenris ran his hand up and down her back and kissed her forehead as a reply. Ellana was not certain whether he meant that everything was alright or that he was angry but could not go into it now. As much as there was a romance to hidden attraction, she would much rather be upfront and honest about it.

\--

Fenris was fuming. He had done his best not to listen to the idle gossip-mongering about the witch’s sex life, but his damnable imagination had painted vivid pictures of her with Dario and the abomination. He had wanted to claim her there and then, just to make them stop. Maybe he should have. His only problem was that claiming her would have meant questions he was not ready to answer. Dumb children ran headfirst into things they did not know. Fenris was neither dumb nor a child. If he was going to jump, he did not want to do it alone.

The group continued further into the tunnel to find out that it was occupied by a herd of the big, unknown animals and a Sha-Brytol bowman, who was perched up on a cliff. The archers turned their attention on beating him while the others targeted the animals. The bowman got a few good shots in before he was taken down. By that time, the animals were dead, too.

They followed the tunnel to a ravine. There was a sign on the edge.

“Only those who believe may cross,” the witch read.

“That’s poignant,” Varric said.

“Believe in what?” the demon asked.

“In misleading signage?” Fenris offered.

“Looks like a prank to me,” the elven rogue said.

“Under the Deep Roads?” the witch asked, “What would be the point? It is not like there is anyone to yell, ‘gotcha’.”

“Maybe it’s the ‘I’ll laugh when you die’ sort of prank,” the Qunari suggested.

“There are pranks like that?” the mage asked to which the Qunari shrugged his massive shoulders.

“Let’s see,” the witch said.

Before Fenris had time to react, she was already taking a step into the emptiness. His breath hitched at the sight that was growing too familiar. Fenris rushed after her, expecting to see her fall into the ravine, but found her standing on a sturdy bridge.

“Why do you keep doing that?” Fenris asked.

“Doing what?”

“Taking stupid and unnecessary risks. You could have fallen!”

“I can fly.”

“What if you had hit your head and fallen unconscious? Could you have flown then?”

“Calm down, Fenris,” she said, “Let’s go see, where this bridge leads.”

Varric patted Fenris’ arm, as he passed. Fenris was still shaken, but what could he have said? The witch’s actions made it seem like she placed less value on her own life than on the lives of others. It made Fenris ache that she thought so little of herself. How could he make her see how precious she was? That her life was worth guarding? If she let him, he would like to work on that.

They found the end of the tunnel. It was a cave that was bustling with nugs. There was an altar of some sort, as if for an offering.

“What the hell,” the witch stated and went through her pockets. She found something and placed it on the altar. It was a piece of cheese.

There was some movement among the nugs. A shadow approached them and Fenris gripped the handle of his sword. The shadow came closer… And turned out to be a nug. With a crown on his head.

“Awwww,” the witch mewled, “Is that not the cutest thing you have ever seen? Look at his wittle crown! Can I pet him?”

The nug made a noise that had the ring of denial to it.

“I think not,” Fenris said, “I think we may be looking at the king of the nugs. It appears that he does not look kindly on being petted.”

“That’s your friend, Varric? What happened to him?” Blackwall asked.

“I don’t think that’s him,” the dwarf replied.

The witch crouched down and crawled closer to the nug while holding her hand out. She seemed determined to touch it. Fenris looked at the other nugs, who observed her with keen interest. If they decided to attack her all at once, she would be in trouble. Or at least have some very nasty bites.

The witch spoke to the nug in Elven, some comforting words with a low voice. Fenris listened to her with interest and realized that he would not mind it at all, if she spoke similar words to him. Preferably into his ear. In his bed. After making passionate love all night long.

Fenris had to refocus on the situation before the crotch of his armor would start chafing. The witch was right in front of the nug king. She extended her hand for him to sniff. After a time, he did. Then he graciously let her pet him before pulling back. The witch nodded and backed away.

“I should put a hat on Augustine,” the witch said when they left the cave, “I bet he would look as cute as the nug king if he wore a hat.”

\--

The lift climbed the last few feet and stopped. They were aboveground again. Ellana could see the sky. And plants, trees, animals, and everything that made her feel better. She took a deep breath.

“Can you smell that?” Ellana asked, “That is air that has not been breathed by darkspawn.”

“It’s raining,” Sera grumbled halfheartedly.

“Of course it is,” Ellana replied, “This is the Storm Coast, after all.”

“At least it’s not raining rocks,” Varric said, “What happens now, Inquisitor?”

“Now we are going to the closest Inquisition camp for the night,” she replied, “We will head back to Skyhold in the morning.”

“Works for me,” Blackwall said, “I could use a night of sleeping in a tent, not in a cave.”

They made their way to the camp and prepared for the night. After supper, Ellana began to take her tent down.

“What are you doing, Boss?” Bull asked, “I thought you said that we were going to spend the night here.”

“We are,” Ellana replied, “I just… I want to sleep in the woods. I have missed trees and plants and regular animals so much that I need to feel closer to them.”

“Could you be any more of a Dalish cliché?” Varric asked and shook his head.

“Emma sulevin ghilana hanin, lethallin,” Ellana replied with a grin.

”Forget I asked.”

Ellana took the tent and carried it away from the camp, into the woods. She set it up with the ease born of routine. She fetched some things from the camp to make it more comfortable. When she was done, she looked around, satisfied with her work. There was only one thing missing.

Everyone except for the night guard had already retreated into their tents, when Ellana sneaked back into the camp. She was careful not to make any noise when she creeped around and slipped into Fenris’ tent. She found him sitting on his bedroll, reading a book. He had changed out of his armor and was wearing a tunic and leggings that looked warm.

Ellana put a finger on her lips and beckoned Fenris to follow her. He abandoned his book, got up, and followed her into the night. Ellana took his hand and led him into her tent. When they were both inside, Ellana closed the flap that worked as a door and turned to her guest. Fenris’ eyes were burning when he pulled her into a hungry kiss.

The tent was a little too low for them to stand up comfortably so they got down onto the bedroll. To continue the kissing, Fenris sat down and Ellana got into his lap. His hands sneaked onto her hips to grind her against his throbbing erection. They both moaned at the contact. They let their hands wander. Ellana felt his silky hair and muscled back. Fenris’ hands moved on her back before finding their way onto her breasts. Her nipples were already standing to attention when he grabbed them. The feeling made Ellana arch her back, which enabled Fenris to pull a nipple into his mouth and make her moan some more. While Ellana still had a few functioning brain cells, she thanked the Creators that she had been smart enough to move her tent away from the camp. There was no way she was going to be able to be quiet, if Fenris kept this up.

Fenris opened Ellana’s shirt and she helped him slip it away. She did the same to his shirt. She admired the naked flesh that had been revealed. His skin was darker than hers and contrasted beautifully against the faint blue of his markings. He had muscles that made Ellana’s mouth water. She followed some of the lyrium lines with her hands and others with her lips.

Fenris was getting impatient with not being able to reciprocate while she admired his body. He pushed her down onto her back, undid her trousers, and threw them and her smalls unceremoniously away. Then he leaned on his hand and simply looked at her naked body, touching it lightly with his other hand. The hand traveled from her cheek to her breasts. After showing them some attention, it continued further south. It paused on the mound between her legs.

Fenris looked to Ellana for permission. She opened her legs for his wandering hand to continue its journey. He brushed her clit once. Then again, more slowly. One finger delved into her and began moving. Ellana moaned loudly, which Fenris took as encouragement and another finger joined the first one. Ellana’s breathing became faster and Fenris picked up the rhythm. He started brushing her clit as well. She knew that she was close.

“Please, Fenris, more,” she begged, “I cannot hold out for much longer.”

“Then do not,” he said with his deep, seductive voice, “Come for me, my witch. Come for me, with my name on your lips.”

That was enough to bring her over the edge, yelling out his name. He continued to work her through her tremors before he took his fingers away. Ellana pulled him into a kiss.

“Get those pants off,” she ordered.

Fenris chuckled darkly at her enthusiasm but did as she had bidden. When the pants were off, Ellana could finally admire his body in its entirety.

“You are gorgeous,” she said with absolute sincerity.

“As are you,” he replied, “Come here.”

They kissed for a while but were both too impatient for it to last long. Ellana maneuvered Fenris onto his back so that she could show her appreciation to his body. She kissed her way down to his groin and finally took his cock into her mouth with a sigh. She started working on it and the balls with her mouth and hands. Fenris evidently liked her actions because he had to fist his hands into the bedroll.

“Stop,” he said, “I am close. I want to… I need to come inside you.”

Ellana stopped and straightened her back. Fenris practically attacked her and she ended up on her back with him on top, resting between her legs. Fenris positioned himself and pushed. They paused to savor the feeling of him inside her and to look each other in the eye. They did not break the eye-contact when Fenris pulled almost completely out and thrust back. They began a rhythm of movement together and laced the thrusts with hasty kisses here and there. They were both already so close that the rhythm quickened fast. The moans and groans got needier and hungrier as they neared the edge. His hand found its way between them and rubbed her clit. That was enough to finish her. Her spasms pushed him over the edge and he came forcefully with a groan. They fell into a sweaty, heaving pile of satisfied elf.

It took some time before Fenris gained the use of his faculties enough to dismount her. He moved to lie on his side and pulled Ellana tightly into his arms. She grabbed the blanket and pulled it over the both of them. She made a satisfied sound when he nuzzled her ear and kissed her neck.

“Worth the wait?” Ellana asked.

“Worth the wait,” he replied, “Good night, my little witch. I will kiss you again tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have very little experience writing smut, so my apologies.


	6. The Sequel

Ellana woke up with a bright smile on her face. She did not remember the last time she had felt such happiness; especially one that was not shadowed by impending doom. Fenris was still holding on to her and making that adorable sniffling sound. Ellana felt something pressing against her ass and realized that he had a morning erection.

Ellana turned carefully in Fenris’ arms and reached for his cock. She grabbed it and started fondling it lazily. Fenris made a few pleased sounds and opened his eyes.

“Good morning,” she said, her hand still teasing him.

Fenris pulled her into a kiss before answering.

“Good morning.”

“Now that you are awake…” Ellana said and threw the blanket away.

She straddled him and slipped him easily inside. She began riding him with slow, measured movements. He took hold of her hips and helped her move. As the pressure built up, they quickened the pace. She reached her hand down to rub her clit, but he waved it away and replaced it with his.

“I want to satisfy my woman myself,” he said.

And oh, boy, did he.

“I think I like waking up this way,” Fenris said after they were finished and Ellana was resting in his arms.

“I thought you might,” she replied.

“What happens now?”

“We get up, get dressed, have some breakfast, and take a course to Skyhold,” she replied.

“I meant… About… You know,” Fenris said awkwardly, clearly looking for the right words, “Do you want to tell people? Would you like to do this again?”

Ellana looked him in the eye.

“That is completely up to you, lethallin,” she said, “I like, respect, and admire you. I love having sex with you and I would definitely like to do it again, if you are willing, though not this morning, because we have to get going. Whether or not you want us to be friends, who have sex, or something more, you will have to figure it out on your own. I have nothing holding me back from being more than friends with benefits, but you might, so I am giving you a chance to make up your mind about me. If it does not come out some other way, I will not say anything unless you do. Does this work for you?”

“I…” Fenris mumbled, looking hesitant, “Yes. It works for me.”

“Good,” she said, “Now, give me a kiss and move your ass before the others wake up. Otherwise, you will have to answer some very eager questions.”

\--

When Fenris left the witch’s tent, he had to take a walk to clear his head. The night, and the morning, had been amazing. Some part of him had expected that the thrill of the attraction would pass after they slept together, but that obviously was not the case. If he was honest with himself, he had to admit that he had loathed leaving her side. He would much rather have stayed in bed, holding her. Or, if that were not possible, he would have wanted to accompany her to breakfast and have her sit in his lap while they laughed and ate together.

Fenris should not have been surprised that she had left it to him to decide, what their relationship would be. When they had finally gotten together with Hawke, she had called him a fool, pointed out that they loved each other and that was all there was to it. The witch was different. She wanted him to make up his own mind. A rather reckless choice, since Fenris had a long history of being his own worst enemy.

The witch had said that she would want to be more than friends. Fenris could not recall her exact words, but that had been the gist of it. She had also implied that Fenris might have something holding him back. She had probably meant Hawke.

Fenris had loved Hawke very much. She had been his anchor, his joy, his future. When she had died, he had grieved. Thoroughly. The thing was, though, that Fenris had known Hawke well. They had discussed the possible death of either of them. The discussion had made him sad, angry, and afraid but the most important thing had ingrained itself into his head. They had both wanted the other to live, even without them. Even, when it was incredibly painful. Even, when it felt impossible. Because life had a way of winning in the end.

So, no. Fenris did not feel like he would be committing a wrong against Hawke if he found happiness with someone else. It had always been her view that life unshared was a life unlived. She had even made him believe in that.

Fenris thought about the witch. She had said that she liked him, respected him, and what was the third? Admired him, maybe? He was able to say the same about her. Yes, she was a witch, but that hardly mattered to him anymore. She was strong; she did not abuse her powers, but used them for good. She was clever, caring, and kind. Not to forget beautiful and graceful. Stimulating in bed. The possibility that she could be his, all his… It turned him on.

But she was the Inquisitor, one of the most powerful people in the world. Maybe the most powerful, even after the defeat of Corypheus. People looked to her for guidance. Two of the other most powerful rulers, if you counted the divine, owed their station to her. Possibly others, as well, for Fenris was not aware of all the political squabbles that had happened during the past couple of years. What would happen, if it became known that she was in a relationship with a penniless former slave? Who she had met when he had come to kill her, no less?

Not that the witch cared about what people thought about her; she did not. But she should. Or should she? Fenris did not give a damn about what people thought of him, but he did not wield the power of the Inquisition or go around being called the Herald of Andraste. She did. Her advisers would probably advise her to choose someone more… Proper. A noble, maybe. Someone with a title and knowledge about the inner workings of courts. Like the Antivan her friends had been suggesting. It made Fenris grind his teeth and clench his fists, but he admitted that the former Crow would be perfect for the witch.

Should Fenris step aside and let him have her?

\--

Ellana was beginning to worry when Fenris did not come for breakfast.

“Has anyone seen Broody?” Varric asked.

“He must still be snoozing,” Sera commented and went to kick his tent, “Up and at them, sourface! It’s time to go!”

“There is no need to yell, rogue, I am right here,” Fenris said as he appeared from the woods.

“Did you actually go for a walk in the woods?” Varric asked.

“Yes. So?”

“That’s very… Elven of you, Broody.”

“I felt like a walk, there was a forest. I fail to see, what is so elven about that.”

Ellana watched Fenris carefully. He looked much more broody and depressed than any man should after a night and morning of sex. What had happened since he had left her tent?

”It seems that someone woke up on the regular side of the bed this morning,” Dorian commented.

“It is no business of yours, mage, where I wake up.”

Oh, crap, Ellana thought. Was he having second thoughts? What if he did not want to repeat the previous night? Or what if he wanted her to be his dirty little secret? The disgusting, Dalish witch he banged on his off nights?

No! Ellana decided to get a hold of herself. Fenris was a good man. He was her friend. Even if he did not want to be together, he had enough respect for her to save her life and to protect her, even from her own stupidity. He had shown that during their time in the Deep Roads. He had lectured her for taking stupid risks and been jealous when the others had talked about her sex life. And the previous night, he had said, “Good night, my little witch, I will kiss you again tomorrow.” That was the last thing she remembered before falling asleep. That was one of the sweetest things anyone had ever said to her. Those were not words a man said to his dirty little secret.

Ellana sighed and went to saddle Augustine. The giant nug was happy to see her. She petted him and told him about the nug king. He seemed very interested. She shook her head at him and mounted.

“All right, people,” she said, “Let’s go home.”

\--

The journey went as they usually did, though Fenris was too preoccupied to notice. He was no closer to making a decision about the witch than he had been after his walk. She rode ahead on her huge nug and chatted animatedly with Varric about something or other. Every once in a while, she glanced at Fenris and gave him a warm smile he could feel in the tips of his fingers. Then she returned to her conversation and he resumed sulking.

The night had already fallen when they reached Skyhold. There was some merriment going on, people were chatting around the fire with drinks in their hands. The arrivals took care of their mounts and returned them to the stables before going closer to the fire to find out, what was going on.

“Master Tethras himself!” someone yelled from the crowd as they saw Varric.

“And the Inquisitor! Welcome, welcome!”

“Thank you,” the witch said with a lopsided grin, “Does anyone care to tell us the reason for the party spirit? Not that I mind you celebrating, on the contrary – I want to join in.”

They got some confused looks in return.

“You don’t know?”

“We’re celebrating the book launch, of course!”

Varric slapped a hand to his own forehead.

“Of course, I’d forgotten,” he said, “This trip took longer than I thought. My second book about you has come out today.”

“And what a book it is! Cheers!”

There were raised glasses and shouted encouragements.

“And the way you pictured the Inquisitor…” a drunken man said with a dreamy look on his face, “You made her sound so…” he said and made shapes with his hands, “I mean, I’d totally… You know…”

Fenris counted under his breath. Drunken idiots, he was not going to punch a group of drunken idiots… He looked at the witch and noted that she looked uncomfortable for a moment, but wiped the expression away and placed it with her usual grin. She was not going to stand up for herself. Again.

“Varric, it sounds like I will need to see this book,” the witch said, “Is it worse than the previous one?”

“Worse in what way, Inquisitor?”

“The porn way, Varric, the porn way.”

“Well, ‘porn’ is a loaded term. As is ‘worse’, it has such a negative ring to it…”

“Varric!”

“I’ll get you a copy.”

“Thank you.”

“You’ll enjoy it, Inquisitor,” someone commented, “I know I did. Several times.”

Fenris did not like what he was hearing. The book sounded like something that would make him burn with anger but what he had to read, all the same.

“Dwarf,” he said, “I want one, too.”

“Sure, Broody.”

“Me, too,” the elven rogue said.

“I think you should get one for all of us,” the mage said, “It sounds like this evening will be spent in quiet reading.”

Varric went inside and returned after some time with a pile of books in his hands. He handed one to each and wished them a good night.

All of them took their copy and disappeared into different nooks of the castle to read.

\--

Ellana yawned into her hand and tried to motivate herself to face the new challenges the day would bring. It would have been much easier if she had not spent most of the night reading Varric’s stylized version of her heroic deeds from being named Inquisitor to what had happened in Adamant. She was not especially tempted to go about her business knowing, what the people had read about her. And fuck, this time it had really been porn. Where did Varric keep getting those seemingly impossible sexual positions? She truly hoped that the male populace of Skyhold would not be imagining her performing those every time they saw her.

This time Varric had at least come up with a love interest that was not based on a real person. As Varric told it, things had not worked out between her and Loranil, and she had sought comfort in the arms of a dashing Grey Warden, who had been tragically killed in Adamant, leaving room for a new lover in the next book. The fact that this Bennet had been fictional meant that she would not have to have another ‘I am famous for banging the Herald of Andraste’ conversation like she had had with Loranil.

Solas had been around the time the previous book had come out, but he had not been bothered by it. Ellana had no idea, what Fenris would think.

Ellana went downstairs and had some breakfast before heading towards the war room. It was time to resume her boring routine.

“I am happy to see that you are all right, Inquisitor,” Cullen said, “I trust that your mission was successful?”

“Thank you, Cullen,” Ellana replied, “We killed a butt-load of darkspawn, found crazy, self-mutilated dwarfs, discovered an ancient secret unknown even to dwarves, and met the king of the nugs.”

“And you lived through all that to tell the tale,” Dario said, “I’m impressed, Inquisitor. I had already prepared for your demise. I’m glad that we won’t have to use those plans.”

“Thank you, Dario,” Ellana said dryly, “I am also glad. Though you should hold on to those plans, for my demise is inevitable.”

“As is that of us all,” he replied, “May I compliment you on your part in master Tethras’ novel? It has been quite the hit everywhere. There is talk of a second print. It’s making people look you in a completely different way.”

Ellana blushed.

“Er, what way would that be?”

Josephine cleared her throat delicately.

“There have been several new proposals since the book came out.”

“Let me get this straight,” Ellana said, “You mean to say that people are actually proposing to me after reading a fictional story about me? That makes no bloody sense!”

“In a way, it does,” Dario pondered, “So far, you’ve been the political and military leader with Chantry affiliations. You killed Corypheus and saved the world. That floats some boats, yes. But now, there’s the added bonus of the fame of your proficiency in the sexual arts. I daresay many could not resist such a mixture. I sure couldn’t.”

“My proficiency in the sexual arts?!”

At that moment, there was a blast as the double doors to the war room flew open and a very determined-looking Fenris stormed in. He gave Dario a dirty look. Then he turned to Ellana, bent a little, grabbed her tightly, and yanked her up. She ended up on his shoulder. As soon as she was on place, he turned around and headed out of the door.

“Fenris, what on earth are you doing?” Ellana yelled.

“Claiming you.”

“Right now?”

“If you need to do something important, there is no better time than the present.”

“But I was in a meeting!”

“Meetings are a waste of time,” Fenris replied sternly and Ellana silently agreed with him.

“All the people are staring,” Ellana said, as she saw the up-side-down, wide-eyed stares of the visitors and some of her friends.

“I do not give a flying fuck.”

“Wait, what…” Ellana got sidetracked by the image, “How would you even go about doing…”

“I am sure that Varric will cover that in his next book about you,” Fenris said and opened the door that led to the staircase to Ellana’s room.

Fenris took the stairs a couple at a time. Ellana could do nothing but admire his strength. Not that a reasonable woman should condone behavior like this, but she was more than a little turned on by his antics. She was thrilled that he had made up his mind so fast about wanting to be with her. She wondered if she had Varric’s book to thank for his sudden decisiveness. All the same, she was absolutely positive that she was about to have fantastic sex. She should give Varric a gift later.

When they reached Ellana’s room, Fenris put her down and pushed her against the wall in an instant to devour her mouth. She could feel his rock-hard erection pressing against herself. He was so aroused that it had to be almost painful. Not that she was far from that state, herself. He was kissing and biting her neck in a way that made them both moan wantonly. It was time to move things along.

Ellana undid her pants, rolled them off, and kicked them away. Fenris noticed, what she was doing, and did the same. They took their shirts off, as well, and resumed their embrace. Fenris slipped his hands under Ellana’s bottom and lifted her up. When she was pinned between him and the wall, he entered her with a groan.

Considering, how wound up they both were, Ellana had assumed that he would just pound away, but he stood still.

“Fenris, please,” she said with a strangled voice.

“What do you want me to do?”

“I want to you fuck me, Fenris. I want you to fuck me hard, until I am senseless.”

“That’s my witch,” he said with a saucy grin, kissed her, and started pounding.

It was so hot. His eagerness, his need, the feel of him sliding in and out of her. Ellana screamed and came, but Fenris was not done yet. He carried her over to the bed and posited her on the cover.

“Get on your hands and knees,” he said.

She did as he asked and, before she knew it, he had entered her again and was taking her from behind. She was in sensory overload, but tried to move with him. His hand found its way to her clit.

“Say that you are mine,” his hoarse voice told her.

“I am yours.”

“Say it again.”

“I am yours,” she repeated and continued repeating it, for it was obviously really working for him.

They speeded up even more, their motions growing frantic because of the closing climax. He came first and pulled her over the edge with him. They fell on the bed, panting, and kissed.

“I was not so sure about this claiming business, but I really enjoyed that,” Ellana said when her breathing had settled.

Fenris chuckled and pulled her into and embrace.

“Does this mean that you want to be together?” Ellana asked. She had to be sure.

“It does,” Fenris replied, “We are together.”

“Mmmm, very nice. I greatly approve,” Ellana said, “May I ask, what made you change your mind?”

“You did,” he said and kissed her.

“Aha, yes, touching,” Ellana said with a raised eyebrow, “But what made you barge in and interrupt a war council meeting for amazing sex? Thank you for that, by the way.”

“I read Varric’s book.”

“And that made you decide to be with me because…”

“It made me realize, how much I care for you. I got so angry after reading about all that sex between you and an imaginary character. Somewhere between putting my fist through a bookcase and fantasizing about killing a fictional person it came to me that this was not a reaction one would have about a friend,” Fenris looked at her and touched her face gently, “I care for you, my little witch. You are important to me. I do not want to lose you.”

“I care for you, too, Fenris,” she replied, “There is one thing though.”

“What is it?”

“You are in my bed, for crying out loud. Call me Ellana.”

Fenris huffed.

“I would rather say the l word.”

“You cannot be serious,” Ellana said, “You would rather say that than my given name? Why?”

“Because I think that I love you, my little witch.”

“You are such and idiot, lethallin. And I think that I love you, too.”

\--

When they finally got back downstairs after hours of sex and fluff, they met a very confused group of friends.

“So… You two, huh?” Bull asked.

The elves nodded.

“He was the one you kissed in the Deep Roads?” Dorian asked, “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“It was so new. Even we did not know, what was going on,” Ellana replied.

“And now you do?”

Fenris pulled Ellana into his side and kissed her.

“I have found her. I intend to keep her.”

“You’re lucky,” Cole said, “And happy.”

“Yes,” Fenris and Ellana replied in unison.

Ellana looked around.

“Where is Varric? I would have thought that he would want to be here to hear all about it.”

“When we saw sourface carry you away like an apeman,” Sera said and rolled her eyes, “Varric went all pale and said, ‘They’re together? Oh, shit, Broody’s going to kill me!’”

“He was not wrong,” Fenris said and his eyes narrowed.

“Easy, there, tiger,” Ellana said, “We can come up with a way to show him our appreciation without killing him.”

“Together?

“Together.”

\--

They did come up with something appropriate and executed it with success. In addition, they lived happily ever after and had lots and lots of amazing sex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we have it - happy ending number one. It will take me some time to begin the second one, but it is coming.
> 
> Thank you for reading, kudos, and comments! I'm happy that some people have found this worth reading. :)


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